Maka's green eyes fluttered open at the sound of a gentle tapping.

After Soul had talked her out of consulting her dad, he'd told her to get some rest while he went out and bought some food. Although she was reluctant to agree, she knew he was right.

"You should sleep while you can. We don't know when the next time we'll get any is, and it's not cool to collapse on the battlefield."

"That Soul Eater," muttered Maka, rubbing her eyes. "Did he lock himself out?"

Then she heard the tapping sound again and realized it was coming from the window and not the door.

Naturally, her first instinct was to reach out to Soul, but he was still not back.

With a sigh, she got up and walked over to the window, peeking through te curtains.

"Are you going to let me in?" Death the Kid mouthed, his golden eyes flashing in the darkness of the night.

Taken aback, Maka threw back the curtains and opened the window for Kid who flew into her hotel room soaking wet on his skateboard.

He carefully lay his twin pistols on the ground and a few seconds later, Liz and Patty returned to their human forms, also equally drenched in rain.

"What are you guys doing here?" Maka asked, grabbing towels for each of them.

"We heard you were in a little pickle so we thought we'd come lend a hand," Liz replied. "So where's Soul?"

"I don't know," the Scythe Meister replied, glancing out the window. "He went out for food and he's still not back."

"Thanks, but I think you should be more concerned with helping your dad guard the DWMA," Maka sighed.

"Guard it? Against what?" Kid asked, his light tone becoming serious. Naturally, as the next grim reaper, it was also his duty to uphold the DWMA and its reputation.

"The Star Clan's planning to attack it."

"The Star Clan's dead, Maka," Liz pointed out. "Are you saying there are still remaining members other than our Black Star?"

"Yeah, there are plenty of others. You think he was the only baby there was?" Death the Kid replied, running a hand through his hair. "Father thought something like this might happen. The real question is, why would he send that reckless idiot Black Star here and not one of us?"

Now that Kid put it that way, it made sense to think that there was a high probability that there were a lot of Star Clan kids out there and that it wasn't the brightest idea to send someone as impulsive as Black Star to deal with the situation.

"Well, Maka? You're the team leader. What's our next move?" asked Liz, breaking the silence that was dragging on.

"I was waiting for Soul to get his input, actually. But he's been gone for awhile now..."

"I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, Maka," Patty smiled, sitting on the bed and swinging her legs. "Soul's a tough one."

Maka found herself smiling to herself a little. This was her Weapon, after all. She had to have some faith in him.

"Dude, what gives?" Soul Eater demanded.

The groceries he'd bought were strewn across the sidewalk as he stood facing a boy with white hair who was dressed in all black. As he gazed up at Soul, the Scythe saw that the boy's pupils were star-shaped.

"Problem?" smirked the boy who'd run head on into Soul.

"What do you mean? You ran right into me."

"If you're looking for a fight, I'll let you entertain me."

Soul glowered and mentally debated his chances against a member of the Star Clan. He didn't see winning as a possibility. Even so...

"What'd you do to Black Star?" Soul asked, slipping his hands into his pockets.

"Oh? You're a friend of that arrogant DWMA brat?" The boy's smirk widened. "I'll enjoy beating the crap out of you even more then."

Before Soul could could even pull his hands out of his pockets, the boy's foot had already connected with his stomach, sending him skidding back a few feet.

"Come on, I thought you were a Death City kid. If you're this weak, taking down your stupid school won't even be fun."

The boy landed a punch that Soul didn't even see coming, but felt the ringing in his ear as he took a step back. Whatever happened, he knew he couldn't lose his footing or it'd be over. There would be no getting back up.

"Damn," he muttered, attempting...and failing, to block another punch. "This isn't cool."

The next kick sent him slamming into a wall and made him cough up blood.

"Nope, not cool in the slightest," Soul grumbled, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. "I'm just this kid's punching bag..."

"What was that?" grinned the white-haired boy, landing a punch right next to Soul's face that cracked the building's wall. "Are you not trying? Or are you actually this helpless?"

Soul realized he was cornered. This couldn't end well.

Before the boy could land the final blows, a shuriken embedded itself in the wall above Soul's head. Looking over the boy's shoulder, he saw Tsubaki standing in the rain. There was a deadly look in her usually friendly eyes.

"You're not hurting another one of my friends," she stated, pulling out a kunai knife.

"Weren't you that kid's partner?" the boy asked, looking at her with distaste.

"I am his partner, Haru," Tsubaki snapped. "I'm not going to let you turn Black Star into a killer. That's now who he is."

"It's in his blood," Haru smirked. "He was born into the greatest assassin clan there was and if it weren't for the grim reaper, we would still be the most powerful. We didn't turn him into anything he wasn't already."

Haru easily dodged the kunai Tsubaki threw at him. "Feisty. Didn't really expect that."

Tsubaki knew she couldn't lose her temper. In fact she'd never been so close to losing her temper.

"You know, you're his last and strongest tie to the DWMA. I wonder what would happen if I cut that tie right here and now," the boy smirked, unsheathing a sword.

Usually a Weapon without their Meister is reduced to half their potential power. Maybe less. Tsubaki was just a little above average though. She managed to hold her own for a while against Haru.

Soul, on the other hand, was trying not to black out as he tried to regain his bearings after the beating he just took. He had to help his friend somehow, but he was in no position to intervene. Tsubaki was the one who had to come and save his neck. Regardless, it was still not cool to just stand by and do nothing while she fought.

Closing his eyes, he gathered all his focus and reached out to Maka's soul Wavelength.

"Maka... Maka. Maka!"

A few seconds later he could feel her soul in resonance with his.

"Soul? Where are you? What happened?" Maka's voice responded.

"Got attacked by a member of the new Star Clan. Tsubaki's here too. Could you maybe come lend a hand?"

"Yeah, Kid's here too. We'll be right there. Hang on."

As the fight between Tsubaki and Haru continued, Soul waited for his Meister to get there. He tried to have a pity party and think about how pathetic he was to get beat up that easily. That could wait.

"Soul, get out of here," Tsubaki said coolly, dodging a punch and blocking a counter attack. "I can handle this."

Haru scoffed, delivering a kick that Tsubaki blocked, but the sheer power still sent her skidding backwards.

"Hang in there," Soul shouted. "Maka and Kid are on the way. With Meisters, we can actualy beat this guy."

"Oh so now you're ganging up on me huh?" the boy asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't have a death wish, so you guys got lucky tonight."

Before either of the Weapons could respond, Haru sprang upwards and harnessed his way onto the roof of a nearby building. "Don't worry. You'l get to see your precious Meister pretty soon. Except this time, he'll be on our side."

Tsubaki moved to follow him, but Soul grabbed her wrist. "It's not worth it. You can't take him without a Meister."

The Enchanted Sword turned her gaze to the ground and loosened up. No matter how strong or special of a Weapon she was, she still wasn't strong enough to save Black Star on his own. And the fact stood that Haru was right. The next time she saw him, they might be on opposite sides. She might have to fight him for real.

A few minutes later, Maka and Kid showed up along with Liz and Patty. By then, Soul and Tsubaki were under the grocery store's awning. Soul had given his jacket to Tsubaki, who looked like she was about to burst into tears at any second.

"What happened?" Kid inquired, landing Beezlebub and running over to Soul and Tsubaki.

"Should we follow him? I can still sense his Wavelength through Soul Eater," Maka stated.

Soul shook his head. "Nah. We can't afford to fall into another trap. That'd mean trouble."

"Details later. Let's get back to the hotel," Liz intervened. "You guys are both in pretty bad shape."

Soul looked down at himself and sighed with embarrassment. He'd just gotten his butt handed to him on a silver platter by some kid who was probably a year or two younger than he was.

Tsubaki didn't even look up once. She was barely aware that her friends had finally shown up. Her head was too flooded with questions that she didn't have the slightest idea where to start finding the answers.
Why was Black Star doing this? He had to have a good reason, but what was going through his head? Why didn't he talk to me beforehand? Do I really know nothing about him...?

"We've got to head back to the Academy. It's obvious that we can't take these guys alone," said Kid. "Our best bet is to put the DWMA on alert and be ready."

"But..." Tsubaki trailed off. Maybe Haru was right... He was part of the Star Clan. It was in his blood. But still...

"Don't worry. Sooner or later, they'll come for us. And we'll just knock some sense into that idiot then," Soul told her, shooting her a rugged, but sincere smile. "He's gotta come home eventually."