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8fangirl8 ;; I know. *squeal* I might do the same for Maka, or I might not...

Sorry for the... eccentric nature of this one ewe Don't know what I was thinking when I wrote it. (XD I was thinking about a DW episode, actually... JETHRO AMG) So yeah. I couldn't come up with anything good for Tsubaki~ -_- *sigh*

Savior: Tsubaki

It was a sunny day, and Tsubaki was smiling. BlackStar was in detention, but it was with Sid, not Stein, so she didn't have to worry too much about his health (physical or mental...). Sid had raised the boy. Anyways, the respite from her meister's overexcitable presence was a relief.

Deciding she would take a bus down to Seoul, Korea (there is a lengthy explanation for this, which I will shorten for you: Once you drive off the end of the bridge leading out of Death City that seems to end in the desert, you may appear - with the Reaper's permission - almost anywhere in the world. Shuttle buses tour everywhere during most of the year. Plus, Sid would keep BlackStar working almost till midnight, and it was only three o'clock), Tsubaki bought her ticket and stepped on, humming softly to herself as she tuned out the chatter of the other passengers.

Just as the tires were leaving the cobblestone of the Death City Interbridge (what they called the road ending in the desert), an explosion rocked the vehicle and the sunny sky outside the windows went black. Yelping in surprise, Tsubaki tried to keep herself from sprouting blades (and therefore spearing another passenger as they were jostled around) and held onto the seat in front of her for dear life. Finally they lurched to a stop.

"Driver?" A woman with a small four-year-old child looked frantic. "What happened? Does anyone know?"

The other passengers answered with shrugs.

Peering out the window, Tsubaki's eyes were met with pitch black that seemed infinite. "Something threw us off course?" she guessed, a little scared. Oh, no, BlackStar can't cook dinner... he can't cook anything. I'll be late, he'll think something's wrong, I suppose something IS wrong, but still...

"Try opening the doors," a man suggested.

Tsubaki's head shot up. "No!" Everyone turned to look at her, and she flushed. I'm the only DWMA student on board... bother... "I-I mean, no. If we- we were really knocked off course while making the jump to Seoul, then we could be stranded in a vacuum in the middle of some inbetween world. If you open the doors we could all be ripped apart."

Jaws dropped. "What about oxygen?" another woman pressed.

"This bus is airtight," Tsubaki responded. "Remember, some stops are underwater, and all of these bus models are the same. So, there must be an oxygen tank, and it must be airtight, explaining why we aren't d- dead."

This time no-one spoke. Some people looked like they were holding their breath, not sure whether to believe what the Dark Arm said. One young boy knocked on the side of the bus, then drew back like it was hot. (Quite the opposite.)

"It's freezing cold!" the boy exclaimed. "Are we really in some inbetween world? How do you know?" Wide, innocent eyes turned to Tsubaki.

She gulped as more people followed suit. "W-well, I go the Academy, and they taught us about this transportation a lot last year... In fact, a friend of mine wanted another friend of mine to demonstrate what would happen in a vacuum, and he almost agreed, but his partners and another friend disagreed even though our professor liked the idea, he's crazy you see, I mean, not crazy, b-but... yeah, crazy. More like insane." The weapon turned bright red as she realized she'd been rambling so much.

"Cool!" the little boy cheered. "I'm Jay, who're you?"

"Tsubaki," she answered softly.

"Hey, aren't you the partner of that obnoxious blue-haired kid?" a man grumbled.

Tsubaki sweat-dropped. "Yes. His name is BlackStar, and he's really not that bad once you get to know him... well, he is, but I suppose since I'm his meister I'm used to it, unlike some other people and a couple of my friends-" She shut her mouth. I'm rambling again, aren't I? Oh, I'm terrible at this...

People dissolved into nervous conversation, glancing around like they were expecting others to start dropping dead at any second. Tsubaki noticed a man shivering in a corner, eyes unseeing, but dismissed it as nerves. Maybe a disorder or something? The weapon smiled - 'disorder' reminded her of 'OCD', which reminded her of Kid. Of all the people, I could use either Kid or BlackStar right now. Or Maka, I suppose.

Her suspiscions were brought painfully to light when the man stood up, close to hyperventilating, and pounded on the steel walls of the bus. "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" he screamed out of nowhere. "IT'S COMING! THE PRESENCE!"

A few others screamed, but most ignored it as paranoia, a few shivered, and Tsubaki frowned in concern. She opened her mouth to ask if the man was alright, but decided better of it. Still, 'the presence'? Maybe he could see souls...

"Can you see my soul?"

Tsubaki jumped, thinking for an irrational moment that someone had read her thoughts, but it was just Jay, a grin threatening to split his face.

"I'm a weapon," she answered gently. "I can feel your soul, but I can't see what it looks like or anything like that."

He shrugged. "That's still awesome! I wanna be a meister, but Mom won't let me." Sticking his tongue out at the woman who'd asked Tsubaki about oxygen, the boy did a clumsy somersault on the floor of the bus and stood back up. "Tada!"

"Very good," Tsubaki praised. "If you-"

CRASH.

The bus shook again, and something had slammed into the metal wall hard enough to leave a dent. Tsubaki gaped. It was the exact size of a human! Pounding on the dent, she yelled, "Hello? Is someone there?"

All she got in reply was a faint groan.

"There's someone out there," she concluded to the terrified people inside the bus. "I'm going to go see who it is."

"Don't be silly," Jay's mother scolded. "You'll die."

"No," the weapon concluding, pointing to a compartment in the opposite wall, "there are watersuits. If they're airtight, they'll work for a vacuum." Walking over, she opened the panel and calmly donned the outfit, though inside she was shaking with worry. The person out there can help us get home, I'm sure of it, she told herself. There's no other way home, that's one thing I didn't tell these poor people...

Being an underwater bus, there was a transfer air lock, and Tsubaki instructed Jay and his mother on how to operate it before climbing in. As soon as the exterior door opened, she quickly tied a rope fastened to her waist to a handbar in the wall. Floating out of the bus, she looked around. The silver capsule was the only spot of color there. Making her way slowly around the bus, waving sheepishly at Jay as he climbed from window to window, she arrived at the spot of the dent to find...

"Kid?!" she gasped, or rather tried to gasp, seeing as he couldn't hear her through her helmet. The reaper was unconscious, and had a small cut on the bridge of his nose, but seemed otherwise unharmed. But he couldn't breathe! Shaking him furiously, Tsubaki wished against all the laws of the universe that he was somehow alive.

One important fact she forgot - he was a shinigami. The instant his eyes snapped open and his chest moved, she panicked and made a move to give him her helmet. Shaking his head quickly, Kid moved his mouth but was unable to make a sound without any air. Rolling his eyes, the reaper gestured to the rope she had tied around herself. Understanding, the weapon led them back to the air lock and signaled Jay to close the outer doors and let air into the inbetween room. Taking the helmet off, she immediately worried over Kid.

"I'm fine," he placated. "Father told me a bus had been attacked by some Kishin eggs, and sent me out here to bring you back."

"Oh thank goodness," she sighed. "How do you do that?"

Kid winced. "Ah, there's a small problem, you see - I need some time to establish a link with my father so he can lend me enough energy to transport you between worlds. Seeing as these stupid Lines -" to emphasize he blew a breath upwards, making his black and white locks float for a moment "- haven't connected yet, my soul might not take the strain of moving this amount of mass. My father doesn't want to risk it." He shrugged.

"So what's the problem?"

"It's just I'm not that adept at establishing links this far away." The reaper sighed. "If anyone, Father should have sent a meister with me, to help narrow my focus. As powerful my Soul Perception is, I fear it might not be quite strong enough for this."

"Then why did you come alone?" she reprimanded.

With a smile, he answered, "Father looked up the roster of who was on board and found the record for a ticket belonging to one Tsubaki Nakatsukasa. I couldn't let one of my friends die in a cold, dark vacuum all alone."

Tsubaki laughed, then gasped for air. "Hey, what..." With a flash of horror, she realized it in the same instant as Kid - her rope had gotten caught in the door without either of them noticing, and had been slipping it open millimeter by millimeter. Finally, it caved, sending the door flying open and catapulting the Dark Arm out into the vacuum- without a helmet. Opening and closing her mouth, she found no air, and closed her eyes for the end, when...

Kid had grabbed hold of her arm, and as she wrenched her eyes open, she recognized the hand gestures he was making as Soul Connection. "No!" she tried to mouth. "You'll kill yourself!" But by then she was blacking out, and as the black space brightened and both she, Kid, and the entire bus were shot forward, the Dark Arm's last thought was of BlackStar. Before she could do anything, air rushed to her lungs, and her eyes closed.

Tsubaki's eyes shot open, and she heaved in a great lungful of air. Judging by the lack of response where they'd landed (in the training forest of the DWMA), she guessed it had only been a few seconds since she'd blacked out. Casting her eyes about, she acknowledged the seemingly unharmed bus and the groaning passengers staggering out, then found what she was looking for - Kid's limp body.

"Kid!" she shouted, shaking him gently.

"Not... helping..." a weak voice rasped.

The weapon almost dropped her friend, then hugged him. "Oh, thank Death," she gasped aloud, setting him down. "I'm so sorry."

"For... what?" he coughed, cracking open one eye. "I'll be fine, just give me a few days to sleep it off."

"I'll never forget this, though," she promised.

With a sigh and a long drawn-out breath, he replied, "No... need... I'm paying... BlackStar... back..."

"For what?" Tsubaki questioned, berating herself for sounding tearful.

"Opening... my eyes..." Then he'd passed out as well, only the faint rise and fall of his chest reassuring her.

The few days he'd promised ended up being close to three weeks, and the moment the reaper woke up, BlackStar had promised a very long and painful payback for saving his partner.

Frowning, Kid had been about to ask why, when the assassin crushed him into a bone-splintering hug. Half-choking, the victim wheezed, "No- problem- LET. GO. Oh, not you too, Maka- oof! Don't drag Soul into this-! Patrici- LIZ. Ow, all of you! And- oh no- Tsubaki don't you dare-"

Ignoring him, Tsubaki joined the group hug, effectively smothering the poor exasperated reaper.

Cutesy ending. ^3^ See ya next time, with Maka's chapter~

Kat