Chapter Three fast approaches, and...
Garo: Oooh, look at me everybody, I'm so hot!
Me: Not really...
Garo: Oh, no. You're not rejecting me too. *cries*
Me: Now I feel bad... Enjoy the story while I go comfort my character.
Spirit Albarn leaned against the wall outside Amaya Ess' cell and listened intently. Apparently, she'd stopped demanding release, because he couldn't hear anything issuing from the cell door, but he stayed a few minutes more to make sure. Then he set off, heading for the upper levels of the Academy. What he really wanted to do was hunt down Maka, but he had a feeling that she'd only wave him off anyway. She may have finally accepted him, but she still hated to be seen with him in public, at any time. Apparently, he was "embarrassing."
Spirit froze in the middle of the hallway and raised a fist in the air. "Don't worry, Maka!" He yelled. "Your Papa is much too cool to embarrass you! I'm a Death Scythe, a super-powerful, dangerously good-looking, awesome, wonderful- ACK." He tripped over a stone and toppled over, crashing into the ground in a cloud of dust.
In approximately two seconds, he was back on his feet. "In short, I am a Papa to be proud of." The egotistical light in his eyes died, and he glanced back at Amaya's cell door. It was cold, uninviting, and probably thoroughly lonely in there. "Poor kid," he said seriously. "Her dad doesn't even know she exists. No, scratch that. Poor kid, her dad is Stein."
He clenched his fist tightly. "I don't care what the Reaper says," he said. "She needs to at least see her father, even if she can't know who he is, and he can't know who she is." He smiled. "Now I've got a plan," he said, and hurried off to a set of stairs, heading to where Professor Stein would be teaching the day's lesson.
"Alright, class," Franken Stein said, wielding his scalpel. "If we don't have any volunteers, I'm going to have to choose somebody."
Everyone in the classroom winced and tried to make themselves smaller. Stein scanned the room quickly for any last-minute hands, and then sighed. "Alright," he said. "Fey, get down here."
Fey, from where she was sitting in the room, blanched. "M-m-me?" She whimpered, eyeing the scalpel in his hand nervously.
"You," Stein said blandly. "Seeing as nobody else volunteered."
Fey gave her meister Garo a nervous look, but Stein could see her taking a deep breath. She got to her feet and hopped down the steps until she was directly in front of the professor. He smiled, and she looked slightly more terrified. Note to self, Stein thought. Don't smile at your students. Apparently, it scares them.
"Alright," Stein said, getting to his feet. He offered Fey his chair. "Sit down."
Fey eyed the chair. "Do I have to?"
"If you want to pass this class? Yes." Fey groaned and sat in the chair primly, folding her hands in her lap neatly and looking like she wanted to bolt. Stein flicked the scalpel out expertly and scanned his students again. "Alright," he said. "Today, we're going to see how easily a weapon can dissect a gopher." Everyone, especially Fey, sighed in relief. "While the weapon herself is being dissected."
"WHAA?" Fey squealed; jerking as far away from the scalpel as she could while remaining seated in the chair.
Stein laughed. "I'm only joking," he said, and Fey slumped in relief. "About the gopher, that is. You'll actually be dissecting a tiger." Fey blinked, and fell out of her chair. Stein knelt next to her to check her pulse. "She fainted," he said, straightening up. "How odd. Well, I suppose now could be the golden opportunity to monitor how the inside of a weapon works when they're unconscious."
"I hate to interrupt, Stein. Actually, that's a lie. I'm really glad I just interrupted you."
"What do you want, Spirit?" Stein asked, without looking away from Fey's prone form. Stein could hear the Death Scythe shuffling his feet.
"A girl just showed up at the Academy. She says her name is Amaya, and I wanted you to check up on her, to see if she wasn't injured on her way here."
"Nygus is the school nurse, not me. Besides, I have class here, or hadn't you noticed?"
Spirit rolled his eyes. "I'll take your class," he said. "They'll probably enjoy class a lot more with a cool Death Scythe like me teaching!" He gave the class a thumbs-up which no one returned.
"What's that?" Stein asked. "Do I hear groaning?"
"Maybe," Spirit answered evasively. "Anyway, it's really essential that you go. You see, this girl Amaya is reportedly insane. Apparently she was quite interested in dissecting things. You're kind of the expert here, no offense."
"None taken," said Stein, getting to his feet. "Garo!" He yelled. "Come down here and get your weapon to the nurse. We're going to have to postpone today's lesson for another time." The class looked like they were doing their best not to cheer.
"She's down in one of the lower level cells," Spirit said, handing him a key. "Oh, and one other thing- whatever you do, don't tell her your real name. She told Lord Death earlier that you and her mother hated each other in school, and now she loathes you. She gets violent at the mention of your name."
"I'll keep that in mind," Stein said. He headed for the door, absentmindedly twisting the cog in his head. At the last second, though, he stopped. "You said her mother hates me?" He asked Spirit. "What's her last name?"
"Ess," Spirit said, and Stein stopped dead for a moment.
"Ess," he muttered, and took off in the direction of the cells.
Amaya scowled at the cell door and gave it an experimental kick. That proved to be a bad idea, because it was made of steel and her toes immediately hurt like hell upon connection with the door. Amaya hopped painfully away from said door and flopped onto her cot, spreading out on the scratchy sheets and sighing. The cell was impervious to anything Amaya did to it, and in the fifteen minutes she'd been there, she'd managed to do quite a bit. But none of it had led to anything that could get her free. Besides, trying to escape would probably offend the Reaper, which seemed like a bad idea. Of course, reminding him of how he'd botched the whole Soulya situation had probably offended him too, but Amaya had been too mad to think about her words.
"This sucks," Amaya groaned, staring in quiet desperation at the bars on her window. She could see the fat golden sun outside, separated into thin slices by the metal cylinders keeping her from the outside world. She would have enjoyed being outside on such a day, but here she was, stuck in a dingy old cell at the very bottom of the DWMA. "They better not keep me in here for much longer," Amaya complained at the door. "Hey! Spirit, are you out there?" There was no response. "He just left me here, huh?" Amaya said, miffed. "Way to make me feel welcome."
Her stomach growled, and she stared at it. "Shut up," she snapped. "'I don't see you contributing to the situation." It growled again, louder, and she clutched it as a sharp pain assailed her. "Ouch," she complained. "If these DWMA people forget to bring me food, I'm going to be in a terrible mood when they let me out. If I'm still alive, of course."
Amaya went rigid suddenly and turned her head to the door. There were three knocks, and then it swung open, revealing a lanky man in a lab coat. He had silver hair that flopped over his eyes and reminded her of her own, and glasses. Strangely enough, he had a large metal cog in his head, which he turned under her stare. She winced and the squeals the metal produced as it turned under his hand and narrowed her eyes.
"Who are you?" She asked suspiciously.
The man waited a beat. "Sanken Frien," he said quickly.
"What do you want?" Amaya asked.
"I'm here to check up on your mental state," Frien said dryly. Amaya scooted away from him instinctively.
"What do you mean by that?" She asked. Frien took a step into the cell, and smiled suddenly.
"I'm going to check, to see whether you're crazy like me," he said, cocking his head and pinning her with his gaze.
Amaya refused to feel daunted. "Maybe I am," she said, grinning as well and cocking her head to the same angle. For a moment, they stared at each other, their gazes boring into the other's eyes. Instinctively Amaya's eyes flitted away, and she bit her lip, feeling like she'd lost something. Like what, the crazy contest? You should be glad you lost that one.
Frien stopped smiling at her and moved forward. "Alright," he said. "Move over." Amaya moved to the very edge of the bed, frowning at him.
"Whatever you're going to do to me better not hurt," she warned. Frien rolled his eyes.
"Say 'aah,'" he told her, and she opened her mouth.
"Aah," she said, sticking out her tongue as far as it would go to be annoying. To his credit, Frien didn't seem put out at all. He opened the briefcase she hadn't noticed he'd been holding and looked at her throat with a penlight.
"All clear," he said, reaching out and pressing his thumb against her nose. He shined the light up her nostrils and took a look. "Fine there too," he said, leaning in and gently opening one of her eyes. He checked one, then the other, and then both of her ears with his penlight before finally placing it back in the briefcase.
"Done yet, Dr. Frien?" Amaya muttered. "What does this have to do with anything, anyway?"
"I'm making sure you didn't pick up any foreign diseases on the way to our Academy," the man said, reaching into his briefcase and pulling out a syringe. Amaya paled.
"Oh no," she said. "You are not going to stick that needle into me. Don't even think about it."
"I'd like to see you stop me," Frien said, lunging forward and grabbing at her wrist. Amaya danced away, leaping up from her bed and stopping in the middle of the room. Frien looked at her, bemused. "It's only a needle," he said dryly. "Don't tell me a big girl like you is afraid of a little needle like this."
Amaya snorted. "The shame tactic won't work on me, Doctor," she said. "If you want to stab me with that needle you're going to have to work a bit harder." Frien seemed amused.
"You don't honestly think you can make things difficult for me, do you?" He asked. "I was the most talented meister to ever graduate from the DWMA. You've never been trained." He stood up, baring the needle again. He stepped forward, boots clacking on the stone floor. "Now come here and sit back down and I promise you that this won't hurt too much." He smiled again, and Amaya gulped. This guy is too creepy, she thought. How many psychos are there at the Academy? Clearly my father isn't the only one.
She backed away from the needle carefully. "I don't think so," she said, and Frien sighed.
"Suit yourself," he said, and lunged forward. Crap, he's fast, Amaya thought, dodging to one side. She'd hoped Frien would smack the needle into the wall, rendering it useless, but he turned his own body and hit the wall with his shoulder instead, saving the needle from cracking.
"You'll have to be faster than that," he said, coming forward again. Amaya bared her teeth in a suddenly sadistic grin.
"Why don't you put away the needle, Doctor," she said. "Take out a knife instead. You know you want to." She stopped abruptly. What was that? She thought, chills running down her spine.
Frien stopped too, his eyes glowing from behind the glasses. "You know I do," he said, dropping the needle into a pocket on his lab coat and pulling out a scalpel. At the sight of the scalpel, Amaya's pulse quickened.
"Give me that," she said, running her tongue across her teeth. What the hell am I doing? She thought. I never act like this. As soon as Frien attacked me, I went… crazy. And now he's going crazy too. Crap, crap, crap, this is not good. I can't seem to stop myself.
She snatched at the knife in his hand, but he sidestepped and grabbed her by the hair. "Never mess with a scientist," he giggled, drawing her closer to his chest. She snarled.
"Scientist?" She asked, swiping his wrist with her nails. He didn't flinch, and she scowled. "I'm the scientist here," Amaya whispered, grabbing the hand that held the scalpel. She tried to pull it closer to her, but he resisted easily. A bead of sweat ran down her face, and she scowled into his smiling face. "Give me that," she repeated, pulling harder on his hand.
"No," he said, releasing her suddenly. There was a sharp pain in her shoulder and she looked to see Frien removing the needle from her skin. Her eyes widened, and the strange mania controlling her brain drained away immediately.
"You jerk!" She exclaimed. "You were only pretending to be crazy to distract me!" Her eyes narrowed. "That's pretty low."
Frien shook his head and sat down on her bed, resting his chin on a fist, the classic thinking pose. "I may have been pretending," he said, "but I can assure you that I was just as insane when I was your age. I still am, actually. I just hide it better than you. Discipline, that's what you need. Control."
Amaya shook her head in disbelief. "You're actually coaching me on being crazy," she said. "I'll admit; I didn't see that one coming."
Frien shrugged. "I'm not here to coach you," he said. "I only came to see just how crazy you are."
"Well? Just how crazy am I?"
"Fairly crazy," Frien answered, and Amaya's heart dropped. "It appears that you only turn insane when you get involved in a fight, but that still poses a great danger to you. You fight with no regard for your own safety. If you ever get involved in a fight where someone really wants to kill you, they will."
"You fight pretty well."
"I've been training for years. Have you ever even found yourself in combat before?"
"Once," Amaya said sulkily. "What's it to you?"
Frien smiled. "You are just like your mother," he said. Amaya froze.
"My mother?" She asked. "You know my mother?"
"Suki Ess, right?" Amaya nodded slowly. "She and I were friends in the Academy."
"Oh," Amaya said. "That's… nice. What was in that shot, anyway?"
"It was a vaccine. All the students in the Academy have to get one. How is your mother, anyway?"
Amaya bit her lip. "She's… alright," she said lamely.
"Alright? How so?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means I think you're lying, and I want you to tell me why."
"She's sick," Amaya muttered. "Nobody knows what it is, or why she has it, but she's not getting any better. I don't know if she's dying or not, but I think she is. That good enough for you?"
Frien looked startled. "No," he said. "What are the symptoms?"
"Don't bother trying to diagnose," Amaya said, sitting down on the floor exhaustedly. "Nobody ever knows what it is."
"Symptoms," Frien demanded.
Amaya sighed. "She has these horrible nosebleeds. It takes forever for her to stop bleeding, and by then she's dizzy and faint. Her muscles are weak, and she doesn't get out of bed much. She's always tired, but at night she can't sleep well. She says she has these dreams… Sometimes she hallucinates so badly that she doesn't even recognize me. And the bleeding's only getting worse. The doctor's predicted that at the rate she's going, she'll have such a bad nosebleed she'll bleed to death before the end of the year. That gives her a half a year left, and now I'm here to meet up with some stupid father I've never met before who apparently can't know about my existence yet because if I'm lying about him being my dad, it could affect him badly." Amaya's tongue flopped out. "Phew. I never talk that much."
Frien stared at her thoughtfully. "Who's your dad?" He asked. Amaya stared up at him.
"If I tell you, you might tell him," she complained. "And then the Reaper will murder me."
"Fine," Frien said simply. His eyes burned with curiosity, but he kept his mouth firmly shut. He got to his feet and headed for the cell door.
"You're leaving?" Amaya asked. She didn't like Frien, exactly, but he was better than no one.
"Yes," Frien said, without turning back. He reached the door and started to pull it open, pausing suddenly at the threshold. "The symptoms you described to me remind me of something I've heard about before," he said, without turning around. "I don't know, but I might be able to help your mother." He slipped through the crack between the door and the wall, and shut the door behind him. Amaya heard the unmistakable sound of a lock turning, and sighed. He might be able to save Mom? She thought. There was a tiny flare of hope in her chest, but she was careful not to blow on it. If she did that and Frien turned out to be wrong… She'd fall into a pit of despair that would extinguish not only her hope but all of her light, as well.
Stein stepped out of Amaya's room and was immediately confronted by Spirit. The Death Scythe had been leaning against a wall, looking bored. "Hey, Stein," he said, waving a hand. "Did you like Amaya?"
"I'm not answering that," Stein said, tossing the key to his friend and walking deeper underground.
"Hey, what's the matter?" Spirit asked, walking up to Stein and matching his pace. "You look upset."
"Do you remember Suki Ess?" Stein asked.
"Suki? She was Kami's weapon before me," Spirit replied. "Wait a minute- she's Amaya's mother?"
"Yes," Stein said. "I want to know who the father is."
Spirit looked shocked for a moment, and then a sly grin crept up his face. "I get it," he said mischievously. "You're jealous."
"I'm not jealous," Stein protested. "It's just that, Amaya looks about fourteen, and if she is that means that Suki was in love with somebody else when she was eighteen, because that's when Amaya was conceived. And if Amaya is here now, looking for her father, he works at the Academy. So I want to know who he is."
"Why?" Spirit asked. "You're with Marie now. I mean, she is away in Oceania at the moment, but digging up all this stuff will probably only make her mad."
"I still want to know," Stein repeated dully. "I wonder why Suki hated me."
Spirit laughed nervously. "Who knows? I didn't really like being your weapon either… did you experiment on her?"
Stein narrowed his eyes. "There's something you're not telling me, Spirit," he said, pulling a cigarette out of his breast pocket and lighting up. "What?"
Spirit checked his watch. "Whoa- I've left my class alone for way to long. I'd better get back!" He darted off into the darkness and Stein sighed. "It's not even his class," he said, and followed the Death Scythe.
Five seconds later, a trio stepped in front of the door to Amaya's cell. Death the Kid looked at his surroundings and scowled. "This corridor," he sniffed. "Will you look at all the imperfections? It's totally abhorrent, isn't it, Liz?"
"Oh yes," Liz said dryly, adjusting her hat and yawning. "Totally."
"This is boring," Patti complained, dragging her feet. "Why can't we ever do anything fun, Kid?"
"We are doing something fun," Kid said, swinging a large grey key around his forefinger. "We're visiting a girl in a cell down here. Isn't that fun?"
"No," Patti pouted.
"She might be crazy," Liz said, patting her sister on the shoulders. "Isn't that cool? Crazy like Dr. Stein!"
This seemed to renew Patti's spirits. "A real-live crazy person!" She said excitedly. "I'm excited!"
"Yeah, well, we'll be working with her for some time," Kid said. "I just hope she isn't asymmetrical. Can you imagine how bad that could be?"
"Yes," Liz said, rolling her eyes. Kid frowned. I can tell that you think I'm crazy, Liz, he thought. You don't have to be so blatant about it.
"Well, here we are," he said, inserting the key he'd gotten from his father into the door. "Let's all be nice to her, and- oh God, what is that hideous thing?" He bolted in the room, staring in disgust at the mane of silver hair streaked with black on the head of an otherwise nondescript girl. He snatched it and lifted it up. "What the hell are you?"
"Let go of me!" Amaya snapped, swatting at Kid's hand. He ignored her and stared at her hair, paranoia gripping his heart like a vise.
"Liz, Patty!" He cried. "Come look! Look!"
"It's hair, Kid," Liz pointed out.
"Look at the hair!" Kid exclaimed. "All those streaks of black and silver- it's not symmetrical at all!"
"Let her go, Kid," Liz said, snatching away the mini-Reaper's hand. "You're freaking her out."
Amaya sat on the bed, looking up at Kid with suspicious eyes. She rubbed her head. "Why is everybody attacking me today?" She complained. "First that crazy Dr. Frien shows up and stabs me with a needle, and now you have a problem with my hair! What's wrong with you people?"
"Kid has a symmetry problem," Liz said immediately. "If something isn't symmetrical, he freaks out. That's why your weird hair bothers him so much."
"Symmetry problem?"
"Weird hair?"
"Hi, crazy girl!" Patti said, sitting next to Amaya and poking her nose. "I'm Patti!" She grabbed Amaya by the shoulders and pulled her in, observing her face closely. "You don't look any different than a normal person to me."
"Am I supposed to?" Amaya said, her face turning bright red. "That's it- I officially hate this place!" She pulled out of Patti's grasp and rolled in a ball on the bed. "Just go away, all of you. As soon as that dumb Reaper lets me out I'm going home."
Kid bristled. "Dumb Reaper? You're talking about my father, you know."
"Then you can tell him that he's dumb from me. I don't care anymore; I just want to go home." The room became awkwardly silent.
"Maybe we should start again," Liz said, moving from Kid's side. "Why don't you uncurl so we can talk?"
"No," Amaya said stubbornly.
"Please?" Liz asked.
"No."
"Pretty please?" Patti chimed in.
"No."
"Reaper smack!" Kid cried. Amaya bolted up, eyes wide. When she realized that Kid hadn't actually moved, she narrowed her eyes.
"That was just low," she said.
"And?" Kid asked. He swallowed slowly and squinted. When he looked at the girl like that, he could barely tell that her hair was a monstrosity to humankind. "My name is Death the Kid. It is a… pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise," Amaya said suspiciously. "I'm Amaya. Why are you squinting?"
"I have contacts," Kid said weakly.
"I'm Liz," Liz said.
"And I'm Patti!" Patti squealed. "Can I look at your teeth?"
"What?" Amaya asked, but Patti was already pulling her lips back from her teeth.
"It's official," the demon gun exclaimed. "You're just like a normal person!"
"That again," Amaya complained, pulling away. "What, are psychos supposed to look different?"
"Not really," Patti said. "I just wanted to see if maybe you were." She giggled maniacally and hopped off Amaya's bed, doing a cartwheel on the stone floor. Amaya stared, and rubbed her forehead.
"I haven't met a single normal person since I came here," she complained.
"What about me?" Liz asked, looking offended.
"Well, I suppose," Amaya said. "But if you're normal, why the heck are you with them?"
"Circumstance," Liz sighed.
Kid looked around the room slowly. Amaya herself was a problem that couldn't be fixed at the moment, but the room's bland décor wasn't symmetrical either, he realized, and he could fix that. "Get off the bed!" He barked, pulling Amaya up to stand with Liz and Patti. He went at the rumpled sheets like a madman, making the bed neatly and symmetrically. When the job was done, he pushed the bed into the center of the room. "There," he panted, stepping back to admire his handiwork. "Much better."
Amaya wrinkled her nose skeptically. "Now the bed's right under the window," she complained. "How am I supposed to sleep with the moon shining right on my face?"
"You'll have to deal with it," Kid said, smiling proudly at his handiwork. "The real question here is how you can sleep knowing that the symmetry in your room is off."
"You're right," she said sarcastically. "I don't know how I manage."
Kid took a deep breath through his nose. "Are you always this annoying?" He asked.
"No," Amaya sighed, going over to her newly symmetrical bed and sitting down. "It seems that I'm only annoying now that I'm at the DWMA. But, in my defense, everybody is getting on my nerves."
"We all have idiosyncrasies here," Kid said. "What's yours?"
"Being a nutcase," Amaya said. "Is that good?"
Kid smiled. "It's great," he said, offering her his hand. "Welcome to the club- ugh."
"What? Is there something wrong with my handshake? Not symmetrical enough for you?"
"No, that's fine," Kid said seriously. "It's the hair- every time I look at you I feel repulsed."
Amaya rubbed her head. "Wow," she said. "Way to screw up my self-confidence."
"Give me your hat, Liz," Kid said. He placed it on her head, and then shook his head. "No, I can still see the asymmetry." He sat down next to her and grabbed her hair with one hand, carefully gathering it all in a makeshift bun and shoving it on top of her head. He slapped the hat down over it and smiled, satisfied. "There we go," he said. "Much better."
Amaya smiled for the first time. "Glad to hear it," she said. "Now, if you don't talk about symmetry for the rest of this visit, we might all actually be friends."
"That's good," Kid said, "Because I'm going to be sticking around with you for a while. My father wants you to have some positive influences."
The girl's face fell. "You're only here because you were ordered to be?"
"No," Liz said quickly. "Kid's father never ordered us to be here. We came because we wanted to."
Amaya smiled again. "Thanks," she said. "The kids who brought me here seem to think I'm some kind of monster."
"Other than the hair, I can't see a reason they'd think that," Kid said truthfully. "You don't seem awful at all. I mean, we all heard about the old man, but you said you were possessed by a witch then, right? I don't see a reason to disbelieve you."
"That makes me feel a lot better," Amaya said. She flopped down on the bed and stared up at the bars on her window. "I hate feeling like a prisoner. I mean, it's never happened to me before, but now that it has, I really don't like it."
Liz went over to sit by the girl. "Don't worry," she said. "We'll get you out of here in no time. I guarantee it."
Amaya smiled gratefully. "Thanks so much," she said. "That would be great."
Kid smiled too. He hadn't really talked to anybody new in a while; only hanging out with the gang led to that, he supposed. At first he'd been mad when he'd found out about his father's plans for his little group, but they'd all be sticking around the Academy anyway. They'd still see each other, as long as Amaya didn't decide to leave the Academy like she'd been threatening.
So Kid took a deep breath and walked to Amaya's bedside, sitting on the other side of her to balance out the symmetry. "Once we get you out of this cell, you should stay at the Academy. You can learn how to be a good meister… or are you a weapon?"
"I'm a meister, I think," Amaya said. "I've never really shown any signs of being a weapon, even though my mom's one."
"A meister, then," Kid said. "I'm sure we can find you a weapon somewhere. And then you can learn how to unlock your full potential, and maybe even save the world someday. Who knows?"
Amaya nodded slowly. "Maybe," she said. "I might. I just don't know right now."
Kid nodded seriously and studied the girl below him. They still didn't know whether or not she was Franken Stein's daughter, but there was something about her that reminded Kid of the Professor. She had the same lanky stature and the same curious eyes, as well as the same silver hair, although hers also had the disgusting black stripes… Kid fingered his own hair nervously. The Lines of Sanzu hadn't reconnected since the fight with the Kishin, although he'd done his utmost to make it happen. When they stayed on one side like that…
"I'm GARBAGE!" He wailed, throwing himself to the floor. "I'M NOTHING! WORTHLESS, ASSYMETRICAL TRASH!"
Patti, Liz and Amaya were at his side in an instant. "No you're not, Kid," Liz said calmly. "You're great. It's just hair, right?"
"Yeah!" Patti exclaimed. "Amaya has asymmetrical hair too, and she's not crying!"
"Comfort him, Amaya," Liz said. "If you're going to be part of this team, you're going to have to know how." Amaya nodded, and she patted Kid on the back.
"You'll be okay, Kid," she said soothingly. "It's only hair. I barely even noticed that it was asymmetrical, honestly!"
"Really?" Kid asked, getting to his knees.
"Yes!" Everyone said at once, and he smiled and got up.
"Alright, then," he said. "Thank you, friends." He noticed that Amaya seemed happy being included in the team, and he smiled internally.
Amaya's stomach growled suddenly, and she winced. "Hey, are you hungry?" Liz asked. "Typical Spirit, forgetting to bring you some food. Do you want us to go get you something?"
"If that wouldn't be too much trouble," Amaya said, and Liz and Patti rose.
"Don't worry, Amaya," Kid said, heading for the door. "Whatever we bring you back will be perfectly symmetrical, never you fear!" Liz, Patti, and Death the Kid all exited the room, and Amaya closed her eyes contentedly. Above her, a large rat swished its tail on the windowsill. Its glowing red eyes slowly faded to black, and it squealed as though being released from a trance before hurrying off the sill.
"Oh, that's disappointing."
The woman staring in her crystal ball frowned and stood up, walking away from the glass orb on the table. She tossed her pink hair away from her face and pouted. "I really thought that the DWMA would treat poor little Amaya with more hostility. Now she trusts them; that screws everything up."
She wandered through the darkness she so enjoyed in a home until she made it to the last chamber of her abode. There, tied to a post, were the two people she'd wasted the past few weeks in procuring. They didn't look like much, but apparently Medusa had awoken a Kishin with them. That was enough.
One of them, Eruka Frog, was stirring. The woman knelt down beside her and touched her on the cheek. "Wake up, Eruka. And you too, Free or whatever your name is. I have work for you."
Their eyes snapped open at once, straining to see her from where she was crouched in the shadows. No doubt they were remembering her Whip around their necks, choking them into submission and eventually blackness.
"Who the hell are you?" Free growled, straining at the ropes. The woman laughed, tossing her pink hair with a sinister smile.
"Your new mistress," she said. "Show some respect."
"Like hell I will," Free growled, muscles bulging. The woman pointed at him with a menacing finger, and he froze.
"If you continue doing that, I'll finish the spell I started when you were unconscious," she giggled, rising to her feet, her brown robe falling around her.
"What spell?" Eruka Frog stated, coming fully awake.
"It's a simple one, really," the woman laughed. "All I did was put a little bit of a growing spell on your teeth. If I instruct them to, they'll keep on growing, backwards into your skulls. That will kill you outright, Eruka, and it will debilitate you, Free. How well do you think you can fight with teeth growing through your brain? Then I'll simply tell the Grandwitch your location, and let her finish what I started."
Eruka's face was the picture of horror. "Oh no," she whispered.
"Oh yes," the woman said. "You worked for Medusa, and now you'll work for me. Did you think you could escape, Eruka? Or you, Free? How wrong the both of you were." She laughed chillingly.
"Who are you?" Free repeated, and the woman smiled.
"My name is Rattiu," she said. "That's all you need to know for now." She turned, and smiled, waving a well-manicured hand at the both of them. "Be ready," she said. "I'm going to need the both of you very soon." Then she stepped away, leaving her two prisoners in darkness, at least until she needed them.
End of Chapter Three!
Also, many thanks to Sophia Griffin, DarkDemonRaYven, and D Snorlax for reviewing. Go check out their profiles, readers! (Except D Snorlax, who was anonymous.) Ciao for now!