"Ugh."
Maka awoke with a splitting headache, finding herself lying on frozen ground next to everyone else. The first thing she noticed was how cold it was. Getting to her feet, she brushed snow off her trench coat, shivering and cursing to herself over her lack of proper winter attire. The second thing she noticed was with soul perception- the path ahead lit up with innumerable souls, some of which looked far different than any she'd encountered yet. One in particular, farthest away, seemed quite bizarre, yet oddly familiar, in a way…
"Up!"
She turned around and found Lautrec had come to, and was giving a stern order to the rest to get going. Everyone else was groaning as they shook off the shock of their transportation. Maka looked back at the path. Narrow, snow covered steps led up until she could see the top of a stone wall. Kid walked up beside her, Liz and Patty trailing just behind, a curious look on his face.
"Can you see it?" Kid asked. Maka nodded.
"What do you suppose it is?" She asked. "Something's familiar about it, but I can't place it."
"It's… similar to mine," Kid said, almost questioningly. "But something's changed about it. I can't place it, but Lautrec might be right."
"Of course I am correct," Lautrec said dismissively, walking past them and taking a lead up the steps, weapons in hand. "The goddess has never been in error. The abomination has been harbored here long enough. Let us complete the task and move on." Solaire took a spot next to him.
"Liz, Patty, we'll have to be on guard," Kid said, leaning his head back and looking at his partners.
"Okey dokey!" Was his response from Patty as the two turned back to weapon form. Soul and Black Star sidled up next to the rest of them, with Tsubaki having already become her chain scythe. Soul grinned at Maka.
"Hey, don't look so worried. We'll be fine, right, oh almighty Black Star?"
"Hah! If this thing's a threat to the gods, then I'll beat it myself!" Black Star grinned. "It'll be my first contribution to my godly brotherhood!" Maka gave Soul an annoyed look as Black Star leaped up to the vanguard with Lautrec and Solaire.
"Do you really need to feed him?" She asked as he transformed to scythe.
"Keeps him in a good mood," Soul answered. "He looked pretty pissed over that crazy guy in the cathedral, so I figure it'd be good to remind him of what he's aiming for."
"I'm still holding you responsible for him," Maka grumbled, dragging Soul through the snow as she brought up the rear. The group reached the top of the pathway and found themselves greeted by a large castle wall, with large double doors opened wide. The first batch of souls Maka had detected greeted them, in the form of hollowed men, dressed in dirty rags, staring down from the top. While it was plain that they were dragging along rusted weapons, they did little but glare impotently at the group as they walked through the doors.
"Cretins," Lautrec muttered in distaste.
"Should… should we be fighting them?" Maka asked as they moved into a large vacant courtyard, whose only notable feature was a worn, marble statue of a woman holding a child. She looked up and back at the hollows, who continued to glare at them, but little else. "This feels like a trap."
"The abomination is my target, not the cretins," Lautrec asserted. "So long as they do not engage us, I have little interest in wasting my efforts. Now, where will the abomination be hidden…"
"Right through there," Kid pointed straight ahead, past the statue. The courtyard led into a large, ruined tower, which stretched in a circular direction up. Surprisingly, the gates to the tower, much like the outer wall, were completely open. Lautrec turned on a dime and looked at Kid.
"How do you know?" He demanded, bringing his faceplate close to Kid's face.
"I can see souls," Kid responded aggressively. "There is one distinct from the rest in that direction."
"And what sorts of sorceries allow you to do this?" Lautrec questioned further.
"Ah, do not fear, Lautrec," Solaire boomed. "Our young friend here is a god! Descended from Nito himself! I can vouch for his power myself!"
"Nito?" Lautrec asked. "How curious… so these are your acolytes?" He asked, gesturing to the group.
"Now wait a minute-" Black Star began before Maka silenced him with a thunderous chop to the back of his skull.
"Yup, that's right, Mr. Lautrec!" Maka chirped. "Kid here's something special!"
Lautrec tilted his head slightly. "Fascinating. I look forward to future discussions, young god. Will grant me that honor?"
"Uh… sure," Kid responded.
"For later, anyways," Lautrec continued. "Now, I am sure you wish this abomination slain as much as I," he said, leading the group into the tower.
"Hey, what was that for?" Black Star whispered to Maka, rubbing the back of his head.
"Let's just not piss this guy off, alright?" She said. "Use that thing called tact. We'll deal with his thing with Kid later, but we don't need him thinking we're heathens or something." Black Star grumbled about being his own god, but let the point drop as they moved in further.
"This isn't ringing anyone's 'this is a trap' alarm?" Maka asked, looking around. "Kid?"
"The hollows are incapable of any sort of planning," Lautrec dismissed. "They simply see that if they attacked, they would be destroyed."
"I'm inclined to agree, Maka" Kid threw in. "We haven't seen any of these hollows yet who have any coherence. Whatever reason it is that they aren't attacking, I doubt it's because they're trying to lay a trap." With a sigh, Maka conceded the point.
"Hey, you alright?" Soul asked her quietly as they followed, still the rear guard. "You're jumpy. What's bothering you?"
"This place creeps me out. You know, more than the usual," Maka whispered back. There was a chorus of cawing and she looked up to see improbably large crow heads glaring down from the top of the ruined staircase that spiraled so high above them. She heard a gasp from Tsubaki, who apparently noticed them as well. They were half-person. Enlarged crow heads reached down to their shoulders and spread into feathered wings, but the rest of them was distinctly human. But, like the hollows, they did little but glare at their guests as they passed through.
"Come, come," Lautrec ushered them forward with an impatient tone. The ruined tower ended in a gate that led to a long stone bridge. A single, armored soldier, armed with a kite shield and massive mace, towered over the rails beside him by at least ten feet. It stood at attention in front of a pair of closed double doors leading to the next tower. "She is beyond the guard, I assume, young god?" Lautrec asked Kid.
"She?" He asked.
"The abomination, of course," Lautrec responded. "She is beyond the guard?"
"Er, yes."
"Excellent."
Lautrec increased his pace to a brisk walk, though he maintained his smooth stride. The sentinel planted his shield into the snow-covered concrete and held his iron mace to his side, almost as a warning. Lautrec stopped just short of the knight, Solaire and the rest pulling up just behind him.
"Be gone," Lautrec commanded. "Let us pass, or die trying to stop us."
The guard shook its armored helm slowly, and immediately hefted its mace into an overhand swing. Kid raised his weapons to fire, but Lautrec was already on the move. The knight of Fina rolled past the swing, coming to his feet right next to the guard. In a single, smooth motion, jumped and grasped the collar of the guardian's armor with his left hand and hauled himself onto its back. The guardian dropped its mace and tried to reach back, but was too constricted by its armor's heft to stop Lautrec as he slashed his shotel in the gap between the helmet and chest plate. After a short few seconds of struggle, the guardian fell to its knees, and Lautrec leaped off. He hacked at the gap one last time, the force of the blow sending the guardian face first into the snow.
"What?" He asked, looking up at the almost alarmed glances from the group.
"Most impressive!" Solaire commended him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "A great display of valor! But, you need not have fought him alone, we were here to help."
Lautrec shrugged off Solaire's hand. "If you wished to help, you could have. I simply work fast. Now," he continued, turning around to the double doors. "She is inside?" He gestured, looking back at Kid again. Kid nodded. "Excellent. We can be finished soon."
He placed both hands on the doors and pushed with seemingly great effort to open them. The tower was different from the last. The high roof was intact, leaving the stone floor clean. The only decoration was a tall shelf on the left wall, filled with weathered books. On the right was the source of the odd soul Maka and Kid had been keeping watch on.
An incredibly tall woman of pale complexion, with long, ghost white hair was crouched, sitting against the wall. She looked to be wearing a long, white robe. It was looked like heavy silk, but lightly feathered, almost fluffy. She looked up at her guests with large, silvery eyes, which rested under small, white horns which curved out from her face where eyebrows would normally be.
"Who are you?" Her voice was soft, almost melodic, even while asking a short question. "You are not like us. Why are you here?"
"I do not need to answer you, abomination!" Lautrec hissed. He held his shotel and knife up, readying himself in a combat stance.
"Please, leave us," she responded. She pointed to the far exit, another set of double doors. "Descend from the ledge, and you will be returned to your own world. If it is I you wish, your desires will be unanswered. Please, leave," she repeated.
"Not until your presence no longer stains my lady's church, foul creature!" Lautrec spat. He raised his shotel and leaped to her, raising it to strike at her.
"WAIT!" A chorus came from the rest of the group, sans Solaire, who looked back at them, puzzled. Lautrec did not heed them, however, and sliced at her face with the curved blade. She recoiled as it raked across her face, but immediately shot to her feet, now towering over Lautrec, at least two and a half times his height. He leaped back for a second, expecting a strike, but receiving none.
"I see," she said. "This land is peaceful. Its inhabitants do not wish you harm. Yet, still you strike."
"I have no time for lecturing from a beast!" Lautrec bellowed. "Face judgment!"
He raised his shotel to strike again, but was halted when Maka, Black Star, and Kid appeared in front of him, weapons readied.
"Do you stand with this affront to the gods?" Lautrec asked. "Even you, young god?"
"She's not doing anything!" Maka shot back. "She just wants to be left alone, can't you tell?"
"What she desires is irrelevant. She is a beast, whose very power threatens the gods by its existence."
"She doesn't seem to be threatening me," Kid responded coolly.
"You are naïve, young god. Were you taught nothing?" Lautrec demanded. "The lifehunt will come for you at some point, unless she is slain now!"
"The lifehunt?"
"It is why I am protected here, young god," Priscilla answered, picking up on Lautrec's cue. "I was deemed a threat to Lord Gwyn, and so, father had me hidden away here, until I would be free of Lord Gwynn's threat." She looked down at Lautrec again with a sad face. "It seems that time is not yet arrived."
"So, wait, this is just here to protect you?" Maka asked her.
"Indeed," she nodded. "Others were given succor here as well, over time. Others deemed to threaten the gods. But, I was the first to live in Ariamis' world."
"Which is why it must be destroyed!" Lautrec insisted. "She is little more than a weapon against the divine! Now, young god, if you know what is proper, stand down and have your acolytes assist."
"Hey asshole!" Black Star couldn't contain himself at the remark. "I'm not Kid's bitch! I'm going to surpass him and every other god! So I don't care what she is, she's not hurting anyone!" Kid and Maka looked at Black Star with a twitch in their eyebrows at his brusqueness, but in agreement on the idea.
Lautrec sighed in exasperation. "You!" he pointed to Solaire, who was still hanging back. "Assist me! You understand this situation, do you not?"
'I… I am not sure this is my decision to make," Solaire answered. "I am not sure that Lord Gwyn's judgment holds weight any longer."
"Give up, Lautrec," Kid answered, pistols still raised. "We don't need this to end badly."
"I do not answer to you!" Lautrec shot back. "You may be a god, but you are not my goddess!" With that, Lautrec immediately rushed forward. Kid instinctively fired a quick barrage, but only one shot struck Lautrec's shoulder as he angled himself downward in his sprint. Maka swung Soul in a low arc at his feet while Black Star attacked directly in front with a strike at his chest. Lautrec displayed improbable agility as he leaped from his crouched run, going completely horizontal as he leaped in between the two strikes, landing in a roll. He immediately took to his feet and leaped at the albino woman, swinging his shotel in an arc aimed directly at her midsection…
Which was promptly deflected with a clang as the woman twirled backwards on the spot, deflecting the blow with her arm, which had become a long, curved blade. A scythe blade.
"She's actually a weapon?!" The group chorused in surprise. Maka recovered her surprise and rounded on Lautrec, with Black Star and Kid strafing around to encircle him.
"Give up, Lautrec," Kid repeated. "We don't have to end it like this."
"It is no wonder the land is in disrepair," Lautrec sneered. "Naive young gods with no respect for their history, their parentage."
He darted back and made another attempt to strike at the albino woman, but was halted as Maka caught his shotel on the nook at the base of her weapon's blade. Black Star took the advantage to strike at Lautrec's arm with Tsubaki's point, sending his weapon to the ground. In a flash, Kid was behind Lautrec, his pistols aimed directly into his back.
"Stand. Down." Kid repeated for a third time, teeth gritted.
"I will die sooner than forsake my goddess!"
He made a twitch, and Kid answered him with two shots straight into his back. Lautrec staggered to the pavement, allowed to fall by Maka and Black Star. "A pox upon you," he cursed at Kid. "How… how can…" He took a deep breath. In an improbable display of fortitude, he dove for his shotel, dripping blood along the way. In a flash, he twirled around a punch from Black Star and leaped for his target one more time.
She simply smashed her blade down into Lautrec in mid-air. An incredible shower of blood sprayed from his chest into the pavement. There was no death throes, no twitch. The knight of Fina lay dead on the spot from the gashing wound.
"Wow," Maka said softy. The woman looked at them softly.
"I am grateful for your assistance," she said, nodding her head slightly. "However, if you did not come for me, why are you here?"
"Well, to be honest," Maka said, scratching the back of her head. "We sorta were here for you. But he said you were an abomination, not someone minding their own business."
"He was not incorrect," She said. She shifted uncomfortably on the spot. It was then Maka finally noticed a short, curled tail, the same consistency as her… her robe? "I am the crossbreed, Priscilla. My father wished to create a weapon to defeat gods. He was… successful. The lifehunt enables myself to slay immortals. That is why I am an abomination."
"Wait, you can kill immortals?" Kid asked, an eyebrow raised. "Any kind of immortal?"
"Yes, my young god," she responded, her expression growing sad. "But I do not wish you harm!" She added in quickly. "It is… simply a part of who I am."
"No, I'm not the one I was thinking of," Kid told her. "Oh, Liz, Patty, I think it's safe if you want to stretch," he added in as afterthought.
"Yay!" Patty's cheer overshadowed Liz' sigh of relief as the two reappeared next to Kid. Soul and Tsubaki joined them. "Oooh," Patty cooed at Priscilla. "You're pretty! And so tall!"
"I… thank you?" Priscilla answered, clearly unsure of how to deal with the excited compliment.
"Kid, you thinking of who I think you are?" Soul asked.
"Of course," Kid answered. "If she- I mean, if Priscilla here can kill Asura, completely…"
Tsubaki and Liz' eyes went wide, having not made the connection.
"Priscilla," Kid began. "You are a full weapon, I take it?"
"Yes," she answered. "I had thought I was the only one like me, able to transform myself as such. It seems," she said, looking at Soul, Tsubaki, and the sisters. "That I am not. The lifehunt scythe was to be a tool if war broke out between the gods. However, Lord Gwyn did not approve…"
"Well, what if we told you that didn't matter anymore?" Maka asked in a bright tone. "Right, Solaire?" she asked, giving him a glare, irritated over his indecision over Lautrec.
"Oh, er, yes, Miss Maka!" Solaire fumbled over his response. "Lord Gwyn has not been heard from in… quite some time. I do not know why Fina desired your death, she has been absent for a long time as well."
"That guy was a psycho, simple as that," Black Star said darkly. "Caused his own death. He probably was hearing voices."
"Anyways," Kid said, clearing his voice. "On behalf of my father, the Grim Reaper, I extend an invitation to you, Priscilla." Her eyes widened. "My father is in battle with an evil, powerful immortal. He will certainly welcome you to Death City."
"Death… City?" she asked curiously.
"Father's base. It is where he trains all of us," he gestured to his friends. "We have no ill intention to you."
"Besides, if you help kill Asura, you'll end up being a celebrity," Liz chipped in. "Everyone will be clamoring for your autograph," She teased.
"Celebrity?" Priscilla asked again, baffled.
"You know, famous! Everyone'll know you and want to be around you, give you free stuff for being so good, that sort of thing."
"I am… I am thankful for your offer, young god," Priscilla nodded. "But, I am safe here. This," she gestured to Lautrec. "Is the first time the Painted World has been invaded in ages."
"Please, Priscilla," Maka asked. "Asura's a threat to the whole world! And if you come with us, you won't need to hide. We have plenty of people who used to be persecuted!"
"Yeah, like us," Liz said, sticking a thumb at herself and pointing her head back at Patty. "We used to break the law all the time, had to look out for ourselves. "
"And now we live in a mansion!" Patty chimed in. "Kid's place is really nice!"
Priscilla looked around at her tower, uncertain.
"Besides, it's gotta be lonely sitting here with nobody to talk to," Maka said, walking up to Priscilla. She held a hand up, looking rather ridiculous as Priscilla was nearly three times her height. "The hollows and bird people didn't seem very talkative when we came in."
"And is not the purpose of life to engage in jolly cooperation with our fellows?" Solaire boomed, finally seeming to have come out of his reverie. He walked up to the rest of the group. "Lautrec was a lone wolf, and it ended with his demise. Come, my lady, aid us! Gwyn is missing; his barrier keeping the curse of undeath is unraveling. We have many great adventures in our future, even before stopping this Asura fellow!"
"Well?" Maka asked, her hand still held aloft. Priscilla looked down at the hand, still with a hesitant look.
"I- very well. Perhaps it is time I cease hiding," she reached down and grasped Maka's hand with her own.
"My name's Maka," Maka said, a grin on her face.
The rest began their own introductions, until they were finally interrupted by an eager Black Star.
"AND I'M BLACK STAR, YOUR FUTURE GOD!" He bellowed, giving her hand a crushing grip. "Now, where's this exit you told us about? Let's ditch this place!"
Priscilla raised a hand and pointed back to the doors at the other end. Black Star motored over and burst through them as though they were made of light timber. He screeched to a stop as the pavement ended suddenly, with a long, long descent to a dark abyss below.
"Close one," Soul grinned at him, strolling up from behind.
"No, he was correct," Priscilla told him. She pointed down into the abyss. "We must descend into the abyss to exit the Painted World."
"Uh… you're sure about that?" Soul asked, looking down.
"Yes. I will go first, if you are unsure if I am being truthful," she continued, a frown on her face. She stepped gracefully off the edge, and fell into the abyss.
"Way to go, Soul," Maka accused, refraining from a full chop, but still giving a poke with her elbow.
"What'd I do?" he asked, confused. Maka sighed.
"Just come on," she said, locking her arm with his. The two jumped off into the abyss, finding themselves in familiar darkness. For a moment, everything seemed weightless. Soul looked at her, their arms still locked, an amused expression on his face.
"You're really something, taking her word for it on this," he said. "Oh sure, jump off a ledge into impossible darkness? No problem!"
This one earned him a full chop from her free hand. In spite of the pain roaring through the back of his skull, Soul started chuckling.
"Nah, I don't mean it like that," he said looking her straight in the eyes. "That's just what makes you the coolest meister in the world," he said. He moved his head forward and gave her a short kiss. Suddenly, the weightlessness was gone, and the two were rocketed forward. Light came into their view, and they were tossed roughly onto dirty pavement. They stood up, and Priscilla greeted them in the old church basement…
A/N: So there we are. I am, like a couple reviewers, a big fan of Priscilla and thought her story arc was disappointing in its breadth. I found out that supposedly there was originally a much greater role for her a while back, and it got me thinking that it made a lot of sense. Lifehunt seemed like this awesome power in description, but it was relatively dull as in game mechanics went. I'm going to.. expand that a bit. Molding her into something that meshed with Soul Eater was actually quite simple, in my opionion, since her soul can be "transformed" into a weapon already anyways. As for her speech, I'm sure it was noted that I dropped her "Ye olde butchered english". I did so for three reasons. First, it's an absolute pain to write, in my opinion. Second, I don't see it as anything more than a gratuitous way to show she is, in fact, old. Since I'll actually be fleshing her character out more, that's unnecessary. Three, it's just an irritating speech mechanism with dubious historical evidence for its actual existence.
Anyways, as always, comments and critiques are always welcome. Hope y'all are having fun.