A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! I had a severe case of writer's block for this chapter in particular and I had to get readjusted to my new school and my crazy hard major demanding all of my time and energy! So, I don't have much confidence in the quality of this chapter which I meant to update before I left for school in the summer, but at least the plot is going somewhere. It's been so long since I've written something fictiony, so please don't be too harsh, reading/writing scientific papers all the time does things to people. Terrible things.

Chapter 7

Going Nowhere Fast

"Soul? SOUL!"

"What?What?What?" Soul yelled, scrambling from the bathroom soaking wet in nothing but a bath towel loosely around his waist, sopping wet hair flat against his face. Wes was there almost immediately after, wearing his silk red robe looking just as startled as Soul.

I looked from one to the other, suddenly very embarrassed. I had only woken up a few seconds ago to no Soul and a strange living room.

"Ummm, sorry. . . I'm fine. Just a little startled, heh heh." I smiled wide, hoping the stretch in my face would hide my blush.

Soul held up some of his dripping hair and raised an eyebrow before exchanging a quizzical look with his brother.

Dun dun dudun, dah dah dadah dudun.

To avoid anymore embarrassment, I dove under the covers to retrieve my ringing phone, remaining under the sheets as I answered it.

"Maka? Are you feeling alright? I heard you were attacked." It was Kid.

I heard Soul go back into the bathroom and Wes slip into the kitchen.

"Yeah, I did. I'm fine, now. Soul took me to his— a hotel outside of Vegas last night. You know, to uh get a change of scenery."

"Uh . . .ok. As long as you're ok now."

"Yeah, yeah. Look, I found some information at the library yesterday, related to the insanity waves."

"Good! My father will definitely want to hear about it. He's had most the staff working on all this. And he'll want to hear about your attack. Tsubaki said something about shadows?"

"Yeah, I couldn't sense anything with my soul perception. They just came out of nowhere!"

"Interesting. . . yes, my father will definitely like to hear this. Can you guys head back to Shibusen right away?"

"Sure, we can be there in four hours max. We haven't had breakfast yet."

"Great. Text me when you get here. I'll gather the rest of the team."

"Thanks Kid. Bye!"

I dropped my phone in Soul's backpack and stood to stretch. Now, where was the kitchen? I was starving!

I found the kitchen, finally, behind a cute little swinging door. Wes looked up from his cooking on the stove as I walked in and he waved a spatula towards a chair at the little table in the center of the floor. "Hope you like scrambled eggs."

"Oh yes, I do, thank you!" I said, sitting down.

He turned around and placed a glass of orange juice in front of me. "I'm sorry my guest bed was not to your liking last night."

Heat immediately rose to my cheeks. "Ah! No, that wasn't it at all!" I waved my hands around frantically, trying to explain without explaining anything because I had no explanation even for myself! "It was a very comfortable room, but I just . . . er—Soul, well—"

Wes cut me off by waving his spatula as if swatting at a fly. "Ah, it is quite alright," he said as he shuffled the eggs onto a plate. "I promised myself I wouldn't pry into your personal lives." He gave me a delighted grin as he said this while handing me my plate.

I opened my mouth to retort, but thinking better of it, I stuffed my face with eggs. There was an awkward silence as we ate, until Wes finally broke it with a sigh.

"I've been wanting to talk to you alone about something for a while, Maka," he abruptly said. My heart quickened, thrown off guard by these sinister sounding words. "But it's always so hard when my brother guards you like a watchdog."

I admit, I had to laugh at the truth in this statement.

"I hope you don't think ill of our family," he continued. "since we seem to not be very present in his life. It's not that we don't care, we just . . . well, we have trouble understanding what Soul is. It's not . . . common in our family."

I took a sip of orange juice, planning carefully how to respond. "I guess it's not very well understood by outsiders. And Soul feels isolated because of it. I mean, there's others like him. Well, not others like him like that, he's rather unique for a weapon, but . . . well . . . what I'm trying to say is he's not the only weapon who's a black sheep of his family. We've assimilated him into our own family in Death City." I smiled, feeling some heat in my face. I had no idea what I was rambling about, but was hoping this helped a little, especially knowing Soul and Wes had an oddly strained relationship.

Wes looked at me thoughtfully and then mumbled something. I couldn't quite catch it, but I think he said something like, "She's better for you than I thought." But before I could ask what he had said, Soul came into the room, fully dressed this time.

"Good morning. What did Kid have to say?" he said, sitting down next to me and eating some of my eggs.

"Hey, those aren't yours! He needs us back there as soon as we can. Shinigami-sama might know what attacked me last night."

"Soul, if you want eggs, I can make you some," Wes frowned at his younger brother. "No need to be rude."

Soul waved him off and drank some of the orange juice in front of me. "She'll live. Cool, then let's leave."

Soul graciously, and uncharacteristically I must add, helped me out of my chair, and I went into the guest room to change and repack. When I emerged, Wes and Soul seemed to be having a tense conversation quietly by the front door, but they immediately turned all smiles when I approached.

"Wanna drive?" Soul asked, tossing me the keys.

"Sure." I turned to Wes. "Thanks for having us, Wes."

"No problem, Maka. But next time, let's have better circumstances," Wes smiled at me and gave me a hug.

"Soul."

"Wes."

The two brothers awkwardly shook hands, and soon we were heading back to Shibusen. It felt weird. Just last night, I was in shock, but now that the sun was up, everything seemed so different, like nothing ever happened.

"Hey, watch the road," Soul calmly remarked. I swerved back into my lane. Wow, have to watch the day dreaming there.

"Sorry."

Cue awkward silence.

"So, what were you and your brother talking about last night?"

"Hm?" He grew tense and shifted a little lower in his seat.

"Out on the balcony. You guys talked for a while."

"Oh . . . yeah. . . Um, brother stuff."

"Oh, ok."

More awkward silence.

Usually we're not awkward with each other, but for some reason it felt so awkward all of a sudden. So I flicked on the stereo, even though me and him don't always see eye to eye on the subject of music. I found a good oldies station playing some Beetles tunes, always decent driving music. I then glanced over at Soul to see if he was so quiet out of irritation or boredom, but no, he seemed to have a completely different look on his face. Confusion? Frustration? No, it looked more like . . . thinking. Yeah, he was thinking. It's not a face I see commonly on him.

I wonder what he was so deep in thought with.

The best thing to do was to just let him be. If it was important, he'd tell me eventually, right? I mean we are partners and best friends. But something inside me doubted he would tell me anytime soon.

I felt so much relief when we finally pulled off the exit ramp and into the town of Death City. Even Soul visibly relaxed at being in familiar territory. It all became muscle memory from there: park outside the school, walk through the gates, make a left down the main hall, up some stairs, through the guillotine hallway, and into the mysterious room of Shinigama-sama.

Kid met us as soon as we entered, and then went to stand behind his father who sat at a rickety, little table with a tea set.

"Ah! Maka, Soul! Welcome back! Shall we get down to business?" Shinigama-sama chirped.

"Hai, Shinigami-sama," I answered bowing slightly.

"Maka, are you familiar with the legends of Shamans?" Shinigami asked, sipping his tea.

I cleared my throat, folded my hands behind my back, and squared my shoulders towards Shinigami-sama. "Shamans are community spiritual guides who bring healing to bodies and souls, governing the two worlds: physical and spiritual. Witches are thought to be the decedents of these Shamans, since they posses similar magic to the Shamans who practiced the ancient magic."

Soul snorted next to me.

"Very nice, Maka," Shinigami replied. "I'd expect nothing less from Kami's daughter."

I smiled wide and blushed, feeling honored to be compared to my mother. Soul snorted again, so I made sure to jab him in the ribs first before asking, "But the last Shaman race died out hundreds of years ago."

"So we believe," Kid joined in, stepping toward Maka and leaning on the little table his father sat at. "However, I believe you have some valuable knowledge from your recent library stint to make more sense of this."

I creased my brow, trying to think how my knowledge made the connection.

"Ancient magic," I blurted out. "The odd insanity waves we've been encountering have been catalogued before, but only a few times over the past 100 years: when ancient magic has been used."

"Precisely." Kid smirked down at his father.

"Hmmm, I see," Shinigami-sama remarked. "So something from the ancient magic has been revived."

"What does this have to do with Maka's attack?" Soul rudely interrupted.

Kid rolled his eyes at Soul and tsked. "We were getting to that, if you'd be more patient, Soul."

Soul grumbled something, crossing his arms over his chest and looked the other way. Geeze, how childish.

"Shamans, wielders of ancient magic, were in charge of shepherding the dead into the afterlife. If the souls did not cross over properly, they would remain as shades, shadows of what was once living," Shinigami calmly explained. "We believe that it was these shades that attacked you last night. You would not be able to sense any spiritual energy since they are a mere impression of a soul. However, these shades are not just wandering aimlessly, they're looking for something."

"Looking for what? Their lost souls?" I asked.

"We're not entirely sure," Kid answered, straightening his jacket. "We're not even sure why they singled you out, but it's becoming more and more evident that all of this is being caused by a rogue Shaman creating a rift between the two worlds."

"That would explain the odd insanity waves and me being attacked," I responded, straightening up in the light of revelation. "If these shades are looking for something, it's us, who have taken on the role of governing the two worlds."

"Yes, yes," Kid nodded, getting just as excited as I was.

"So what do we do now?" Soul asked, abandoning his childish pouting and facing Kid with a bored expression. "If you ask me, this is going to get worse."

"Correct, Soul," Kid replied. "We're analyzing the waves now, hoping for a pattern to point us in the direction of the rift. The sooner we close the rift or destroy whatever is creating it, the balance between the worlds will be restored and the shades will return to rest."

Soul chuckled. "It sounds so simple."

Shinigami bounced as he also laughed. "When we look back at it, it will seem so. Oh, by the way, your electricity was fixed."

"Ah! Thank you," I smiled, the thought of being able to go home making me sigh inwardly. All I wanted to do was have some tea and curl up with a good book.

"Well, I have some matters to attend to," Kid said suddenly, heading for the door. "Maka, Soul, glad you're back safe. We'll be having a meeting about this tonight at our usual location."

"I forgot it was Friday already! Yes, we'll be there." I tried to hide my disappointment of not being able to just relax all night, but I'm sure Tsubaki and Black Star want to see how we're doing, as well.

Kid left abruptly, leaving us alone with Shinigami. I was about to also excuse ourselves, but Shinigami spoke up suddenly, catching us both off guard.

"So I take it you are doing better after a night in Las Vegas, Maka?"

"How did you know—" Soul started, but was cut off.

"It's important to keep tabs on your death scythe in cases of emergencies, such as your top young meister is incapacitated, hm?"

Soul made to say something, but shut his mouth and nodded.

"You may go now, I'll keep you updated."

"Thank you, Shinigami-sama," we toned together before leaving as well.

We walked in silence down the long corridor of intimidating guillotines. I looked over at Soul, seeing his face of deep contemplation again. He suddenly turned his gaze toward me, upon noticing my staring at him. Nothing was said verbally, it was all in the eyes:

"What?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me."

Finally he faced forward again and responded out loud, "I'm hungry. Let's pick up some grub before we head home."

Right as I was about to respond, I saw a flash of red at the end of the hall. I squinted towards the odd sighting, feeling irritated all of a sudden. What was down at the end? . . . Or was it someone?

"RUN SOUL! RUN!" I yelled and shoved Soul in the opposite direction. It was like one of those dreams where everything is in slow motion and your limbs become like wet noodles. Unable to escape, I was soon collapsing into Soul's escaping back, my father wrapped securely around my ankles.

"What the—?" Soul groaned, twisting around to see what was going on.

"MAKA! MAKA MY BABY!" my father sobbed at my feet.

Soul, realizing I was pinned, carefully got out from under me and grabbed both my wrists trying to pull me out from under my father.

"Papa! Let go of me!"

"NO! I will never let my sweet, precious, lovely— ACK!"

I managed to slip one of my feet from his grasp and kicked him square in the face. "I said let me go, you buffoon!"

"NEVER!"

"AHHHH! Careful, Soul!"

"Sorry. Ah damn it! Let her go, will ya?"

The tug of war continued, with grunts, yelling, and repeated kicks to my father's face.

"Senpai? What are you doing?" Dr. Stein said standing over us curiously.

"Huh?" my father moaned, looking up toward him.

"Quick, Soul!" I whispered, and Soul yanked hard, managing to free me of my father's grasp.

"My baby had left with that weapon of hers," he wailed. "I thought she had eloped!"

"What? Papa, why would you think that?" I was now standing threateningly over him.

"Because I went down to check on you last night—sniff—when I heard your power was out, and you were gone! With him!" He pointed dramatically at Soul standing behind me.

"Yeah, because the power was out," Soul answered. "I thought it would be more comfortable for Maka, after the trauma of her attack, to go someplace else for the night. Geeze, old man, why would I elope with her?"

"I KNOW DAMN WELL YOU ARE NOT THAT CHASTE, BUDDY!" Papa screamed in my face pointing at Soul over my shoulder. Honestly, it's been a while since I've seen my father so upset about Soul, not since the bathtub incident.

"Senpai, you should calm down. You're jumping to conclusions." Stein said, attempting to diffuse the situation.

Suddenly I felt an arm wrap around my waist and wrench me the other way.

"Wha—?"

"AT LEAST I TAKE CARE OF HER!" Soul barked, now standing between me and my father, his arm still on my waist.

"Wha—what are you saying?" Papa sniffled. "HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF—OF NEGLECTING HER, YOU HOOLIGAN!"

"Tch. I wasn't the one who abandoned her for other women."

"Soul . . ." I whispered, more to myself, but he noticed it and turned towards me.

"Come on, Maka, let's go."

He pushed me at the small of my back in the opposite direction of the sobbing mess and an amused Stein. We walked in silence again, only the sound of our feet echoing on the tile and a distant sob behind us until we reached the front steps.

"You know, I just don't understand it," Soul was saying, head down and hands in his pockets. "He claims to love you so much, but he clearly doesn't know how to take care of you."

We stopped and sat down at the end of the stairs. Honestly, I was still kind of dumb founded with Soul's actions. Yeah he's bickered with my father before, but never full out got angry and yelled at him. And yes, Soul is very protective of me, but he's always avoided getting between me and my father for the simple reason that it was family stuff he shouldn't be involved in.

"Heh, we're the only two real death scythes in the whole world, and yet we're complete opposites," he said, kicking a pebble on the dusty ground.

I lightly rubbed his back reassuringly and sighed. "My father is just being . . . my father. Not much can be done, unfortunately." And then I added under my breath, "At least I made a better choice than my mother."

Suddenly we heard voices in the corridor. Two kids came bounding down the steps, not even noticing us sitting there for they seemed to be in a heated argument.

"You just had to do that, didn't you?" fumed a young girl, sporting short, bubblegum pink hair and a light pink jumper. "Now we both failed our mission! At this rate we'll never pass!" She crossed her arms across her chest.

Her partner (weapon or meister, I wasn't sure yet) gave her a bored look. He was quite the sight: black spiky hair, studded dog collar on his neck, all black and baggy clothing, and eyeliner.

"Tch, maybe if we stopped planning and calculating all the time, we'd actually capture a soul?"

"Ross!" the girl screamed, "I'm doing what they told us in class! What else do you expect me to do?"

"Stop using your head all the time and actually fight!"

Well this felt like de ja vu. Soul glanced over at me, smirking. Yeah, he remembered all right. How many years ago was that when we had this same argument when we first started doing missions together? It sometimes felt like yesterday.

I smirked back and stood up. He followed my lead as I deliberately walked between the fighting pair, heading to the large front gates of the school, their eyes following us upon realizing who we were.

"Soul, what's the number one rule of being partners?" I asked over my shoulder in a sweet voice.

Coming up beside me, he chuckled as he answered, "Always trust your meister."

"And always trust your weapon." I finished, looking deep into his startling red eyes.

Okay, so I probably didn't need to make it as cheesy as that, but the statement truly fit for the crazy couple of days we've had. I felt a strange and deeper connection to Soul all of a sudden, as if we were resonating perfectly, nothing like the awkward silence during our drive earlier.

A/N: Well, there you have it! Please review! Oh, and I'll be updating the next chapter, hopefully soon because I got a sudden creativity burst (during midterms, how ironic) and have been punching out the next couple chapters already. \^o^/