Act 2 (The action :)

"YAHOO!"

That was the first sound that greeted Crona as his he poked his head out into the light. The cold air of a late midday covered him in goosebumps, as a spiky blue haircut came into view.

Before Crona could make much of the sight before him, he felt his neck strain as it was suddenly yanked by two muscular hands, sending him past a row of teeth. He looked back to see the Kishin attempting to close its' jaw, remarking "Must be something I ate!"

"Was I just puked up?" He thought as he tumbled out into the open air, being caught by two pairs of hands. Crona looked around him to see the muscular figure and the annoyed face of the egotistic assassin, Black Star, to one side.

"How the hell'd a skinny guy like you get to be so heavy anyways?!" Black Star snorted. Crona felt a strange sense of relief at what he heard next (while also feeling a bit bad for Black Star).

"Maka-chop!"

Crona glanced over to see something he'd been missing for some time, a pair of pigtails, attached to a face that was currently smiling fondly at him. Scythemeister Maka Albarn, his best friend.

"Hi Crona." She spoke, her tone friendly and gentle.

He blushed."Um...hi...Maka."

A silence fell as the two simply stared at each other for a moment.

"Ow! Did you really have to hit me so hard?!" A loud voice interrupted.

The two broke eye contact to glance over at Black Star, who was currently busy rubbing his head in pain.

"Dude, you really know how to wreck a moment." A calm voice

Crona looked over curiously to see the source of this sudden sarcasm.

Sitting beneath Maka was the winged piano scythe, Soul Eater Evans, his blade emitting an intense white glow. Crona's eyes ached as he stared into it.

"Nice to see you and all Crona, but we've really gotta stop meeting like this." Soul wryly commented.

Crona's attempt at a reply was interrupted, however by a sudden intense red glow. Crona looked toward the source just in time to catch sight of a bright beam heading towards the group.

"Look out!" A stern voice shouted.

A black blur flew in front of them in a flash and put his hands together, creating a glowing golden energy shield in the shape of a skull, blocking the beam. Crona's eyes lit up in recognition at the figure. Dark cloak, black and white striped hair. It was Death the Kid, the new Shinigami.

Kid's teeth grit as he strained against the beam, eventually throwing it back toward it's source. It made contact with a BOOM, a brief bright light followed by a cloud of smoke.

Once the smoke cleared, Crona looked to the source.

Where the mad blood had once formed a solid dome around the moon, was now a small gap, leaving the black and white hair, pale skin, and flesh wrappings from the monstrous figure of kishin Asura's upper body exposed, his lower body still trapped in a dark crater of the mad blood. Even after all that time spent within him, just looking at the creature gave Crona mild goosebumps.

"Oh, that was a nice maneuver. Pathetic and ultimately useless, but nice." The kishin mocked, grinning madly.

Black Star zoomed towards the kishin, Tsubaki's Uncanny Sword form pointed towards the kishin.

"We'll see who's pathetic when you taste the power of Black Star, the man who surpassed God and can levitate, even while looking at boobs!" The assassin bragged.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki's voice shot from her sword form, irritated and with a hint of embarrassment. "I thought we agreed you wouldn't mention that again!"

Before Black Star could utter a response, a storm of sharpened scarves, the size of pillars, shot from Asura's torso, the ends curled into drills. Black Star sliced through the scarves with ease, as another red beam shot from Asura's mouth, which Black Star blocked with his sword.

As he struggled against the beam, it's force pushing him back, above him, Kid flew over to Maka.

"Maka, I wanna try something with Soul. I need you and Crona to dismount. Crona, I'll give you moment to spread your wi-"

Understanding the command, before Kid could finish the sentence, Crona picked Maka up, now hovering wingless in mid-air.

"Um, well... nevermind." Kid stammered, a little surprised before turning back to the task at hand. Kid took Soul by the handle, his scythe wings receding but his glow remaining.

Crona looked on as Kid flew over to Black Star, intercepting the beam with Soul's blade.

"The Grim Reaper wields a Death Scythe, this should be good!" The kishin jeered.

"Go Black Star!" Kid shouted. "I'll cover you!"

At that, Black Star charged forward and plunged a hand down Asura's throat, grabbing Vajra by the tip, even as the heat from the blade burned his hands.

"Careful, Black Star!" Tsubaki warned.

"Oh yes be careful where you put your hands, you know where I've been!" Asura taunted.

"YOU'RE REALLY PISSING ME OFF!" Black Star shouted, ripping Vajra from Asura's throat, cutting off the red beam.

Asura choked out black blood from his throat. A sigh of relief could be quietly heard as Black Star watched Vajra dissolve into dust in his hand. He quickly turned to Kid.

"Now Kid!"

"Right! Go Soul Resonance!" The blade glowed with an intensity unseen before as Kid's rigid but friendly soul mixed with Soul's more laid back wavelength.

"Kishin Hunter!" Kid yelled as he brought the blade down upon Asura in a flash of light.

As the smoke cleared from the attack, all that was heard was chilling laughter.

"HA-HA-HA-HA! Did you pathetic weaklings really think an attack like that could stop me?" Asura mocked, his hand moving to cover the black blood pouring from his wounds. The attack had apparently caused the mad blood to recede to such a point that it was now only encasing his feet. "With your little friend out of me, this blood alone can't imprison me. You've spelled your own doom!"

"We know." Maka calmly stated as Kid and Black Star flew to her side, Soul's scythe blade becoming dim.

"What?"

Crona turned to look at Maka as she tapped her coat and four misshapen purple and black objects with strange red mouths flew out.

"A little something we made after studying Medusa's research." Maka explained.

Crona's eyes widened in recognition.

"Purple dye clowns!" he thought.

Maka turned to him and whispered in his ear. Understanding the command, Crona nodded his head.

He pointed to Asura and spoke softly, simply, "Madness fusion."

Letting out a bizarre giggling sound the clowns flew forward and, in a flash, embedded themselves in Asura's wounds on his arms and torso, his flesh taking on a swirling purple and black design to match the clowns where they had fused.

"Wait, is it...mad blood!?" Asura shouted as the mad blood began to flow back around his body in a tidal wave, as if drawn by magnets. He choked on the blood as it began to encircle his head. He shouted back one final taunt.

"Using emotionless soldiers of madness to trap me, very clever. But remember this, Crona Makenshi! Deep down we are just alike! One day, fear will swallow you just as it did me and then you'll wish you'd stayed behind!"

With that final word, the mad blood overwhelmed Asura, rising higher and higher until it became level with the rest of the dome. Soon after, there was a small cracking sound as the blood hardened, becoming black and smooth once more.

"It looks perfectly symmetrical again." Kid remarked, his voice filled with admiration.

"Yeah, it's the most perfectly symmetrical boob I've ever seen." Black Star responded in awe.

Kid shot him a death glare.

"What!?"

Kid rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Let's just get back home." He sighed, exhausted.

He flew back over to Crona, handing Soul back to Maka, wings again sprouting from his blade as she took her place atop the demon scythe.

Seeing Crona's somewhat confused expression, Maka decided to explain things.

"See, the clowns will act as magnets for the mad blood, while at the same time being bound to Asura, and the strength of their bond depends on Asura's level of madness. So, the madder Asura gets, the stronger the clowns' ability to restrain him will be. In a way, I guess you could say he's keeping himself imprisoned."

Not knowing how to respond, Crona simply said, "Oh."

Maka gave his shoulder a pat in an attempt to comfort him. "Come on, everyone's waiting for us." She said, gesturing toward the others.

As the party flew off to the waiting airship, Crona gave one last look toward the moon.

A twinge of sorrow hit his stomach as he remembered Asura. He thought of Maka and the others and how they had always fought for him, no matter what. He wondered if Asura had had anyone like that and if it would have made him any different.

"Poor guy." He thought to himself before flying off to rejoin the others.