Cat and Fox

Chapter 3

Months passed, things started looking up for the sisters. Xina started to go back to her normal,happy self instead of the sad, serious, and anxious girl she was. She now laughed, joked, and enjoyed herself. Catrina was happy for her sister, but she was still quiet and secluded mainly because of Stein. Xina was really young when the experiment occurred but it was a permanent picture in Catrina's mind. Every time she looked at him she remembered. While she still hadn't fully opened up,she did have friends. People like Maka, Liz, and Tsubaki made her feel comfortable and secure. Even Kid seemed to warm up to the black haired weapon. Although he would never admit to it, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Besides that, Catrina had finally settled in enough to unglue Xina from her side. Arrangements were made long ago for Xina to stay with Patty, Catrina had noticed Xina felt insecure in the cold basement. The main reason was because the two were such good friends. Lord Death had agreed to the move in.

"Earth to Catrina... Anyone in there?" Liz said knocking on Catrina's head.

Catrina winced and snapped out of her trance. "Oh sorry I was just in thought..."

"You didn't answer me." Maka remarked.

"What was the question?"

"I asked if you had been given any special missions...However I am now more concerned with what you were thinking about."

"Nothing important don't worry."

Maka watched her with a sceptical gaze. "Are you thinking about someone?"

"N-no nothing like that." Catrina reddened

"Then what was it?"

"Just things from the past."

Maka thought for a moment "... Like Kid?..."

"Maka! No!" Catrina said putting her hands to her face.

Maka laughed " I'm just teasing lighten up a little. You're worse than Crona."

Xina giggled, she was at Patty's house and they were playing truth or dare and it was a crazy version. She never knew Patty had a mischievous side to her but it showed during her dares. They soon lost interest in the crazy game and moved on to other topics. Before they knew it they were doing impressions of their friends. Patty did an impression of Black Star and Xina just about died from laughter.

Wiping a tear from her eye she stood up "Okay my turn, who should I do?"

The michevious glint returned to Patty's eyes. "Kid."

"Kid!? No way." Her voice dropped. "Besides he's home."

"So? Don't worry he doesn't come up here much anyway."

"I'm not doing Kid."

"But you have to!" Patty whined

"No."

"Please..." Patty gave her pouty face and Xina gave in.

"Fine."

Xina dropped to the floor and rolled around whining about symmetry, stripes, and asymmetrical issues.

Patty's laughter filled the house, her eyes brimmed with tears, Xina was on a role. She whined about symmetrical books, couches, and paintings. Patty tried to take in a breath but it was drowned out by her laughter. Just as Xina started to whine about his partners being asymmetrical, Patty stopped laughing a serious expression came over her face. Xina was afraid she had insulted the girl.

"Patty why did y-"

"Is something funny?" Kid asked standing in the doorway

"H-how long have you been standing their?" Xina asked.

"Long enough." Kid replied

They sat in silence for a moment before Patty exclaimed "KID THE COUCHES AREN'T EXACTLY SYMMETRICAL,ONE IS TOO FAR TO THE LEFT!"

Kid grasped his cheeks his eyes filled with fear. "NO IT CANT BE!"

"BUT IT IS!" Patty yelled

Kid whipped around running down the stairs screaming something about couches. It was silent for a moment then Kid screamed again.

"Patty! You're going to be the death of me!"

Patty and Xina were left in fits of hysterical laughter.

Catrina let out a slow breath and focused at the task at hand. Xina and Catrina were trying to resonate souls in their animal forms with professor Stein, the last person she wanted to be around. 'Doesn't matter how you got these powers, they're yours...so use em' she remembered Sid had said to her.

She intended to do just that.

Catrina and Xina locked eyes onto one another...

"Soul Resonance!" They two shouted

Catrina could feel Xina's soul combining with hers. She felt herself growing stronger.

"I-its working." Catrina yelled, overjoyed at their accomplishment. Suddenly she felt the power start to disappear. she heard a wail from Xina, the effort overwhelming her. Catrina now distracted by Xina's wail, accidently pulled her soul away from Xina and the two collapsed.

"Tsk tsk tsk." Stein clicked with his teeth. "Your souls aren't on the same wavelength.

" Then how are we able to wield each other?" Catrina asked, panting.

"See that's just it. In your human form you can easily resonate with one another because your souls are compatible. You've never needed to resonate with each other in animal form. So your souls aren't accepting each other" Stein lit a cigarette and stuck in his mouth.

"Is there a difference in resonating with each other in animal form?"

"Yes. Believe it or not the animals I used while experimenting had souls."

"You mean they were like Blair in a way."

"Exactly, so when you resonate souls in animal form its more like resonating four souls instead of two."

Catrina thought for a moment, she knew Stein was right but she was also angered once again by his actions. The animals that had been crossed with them had souls, 'They had their own souls, their own lives!' Catrina thought. She felt fury rising in her chest but pushed it away to focus on the task at hand. Xina had already stood up, the sun glistened off her pure white coat, the wind ruffled her fluffy fur, in her fox form she looked as if she could run a thousand miles and not break a sweat. Catrina couldn't be prouder of her strong sister. Xina was the strength of their animal team, Catrina was the speed.

"Ready?" Xina asked

"Ready." Catrina answered

"Soul Resonance!" They shouted

This time she felt the full power of Xina's soul. It was strong, determined, and brave. Catrina closed her eyes and felt the souls completely combine. It was something like a caterpillar cocoon breaking open to reveal a butterfly, like something completely new but it felt like it had always been within you. When the sensation was over she opened her eyes.

The two gasped in unison.

Xina now had yellow streaks running through her fur. Her mouth was sparking, little flicks of electricity popping off her teeth.

"Xina y-."

She heard Stein chuckle. "I've never seen a resonance so powerful that it changes the basic features and powers of a soul, but in this case it's not surprising since 4 souls are resonating."

"Catrina." Xina started "y-you have w-wings."

"You're kidding!" She said but soon found it to be true. When Catrina tried to shift her shoulder blade she yanked her right wing violently to the left and fell over.

"Oh death how am I going to manage these?" She muttered, pulling herself up and stumbling over to the nearby mirror. Stein had placed it to contact Lord Death about their progress. She took a look at herself. Her wings were massive, twice the size of her cat body, despite this they were incredibly light. The tips of her paws and tail were a dark blue. Her ears were slightly longer and seemed to have bits of feather poking from the tip. The backs of her paws also had feathers stuck out as well as her tip tail. She stared, she felt as if she was staring at a new creature. Xina walked up to join her.

"Do you want to pull out of resonance?" Catrina asked.

"W-wait" Xina stuttered staring at herself. "I just can't believe this."

"I know... It's crazy."

"Are you kidding? It's awesome." Xina shouted gleefully, jumping up and down.

Catrina just sighed and rolled her eyes. She pulled her soul away from Xina's and watched the wings disappear. The blue faded to black, her ears returned to normal size and the feathers disappeared. Xina's yellow stripes faded and her teeth stopped sparking.

"Awww..." Xina whined

Stein chuckled "You'll get another chance at it."