CHAPTER 5

Green eyes blinked slowly, gradually adjusting to the darkness around her. Maka realized she must have passed out again, for she felt worn, utterly exhausted. The pain from earlier had left a tremor in her muscles, a weakness she could not shake off and the blonde vaguely remembered that it had been something Kid had said… But what? Something about the souls, it was something about the souls…

"Maka, you will have to block your soul perception completely for now. Seal it shut!"

"But, Kid…"

"You must, or it will drive you mad," the young reaper said gently, helping her up to her feet. At least he looked sober now, that sickly drowsiness from earlier gone from his eyes. All the sudden it was incredibly quiet and the blonde meister glanced around in confusion, unable to understand what had happened to her. But do I really want to know? Maybe it's better if I don't think about it anymore, at least for now…

"Kid, I was waiting for a sign from you these days, I thought we were going to meet up somehow," Maka began, willing to change the subject and still wondering why the shinigami was being so weird – she was still rather shocked after seeing him drink the Black Water and pass out like that. Just what the hell was he not telling her? "But you never showed up so I thought… I was worried, okay? Besides, the Older One is investigating on who broke the door of the habitations area…"

The reaper shrugged. "I don't think that's going to be a problem, there's no way he can find out what happened. But I had to be careful afterwards, that Brother got too close to discovering us the last time and I'm sure there still are some things he's wondering about. I thought of keeping a low profile for now, since… well…"

"Well?"

"I managed to contact my father by dialing his number into a puddle, if you can believe that, heh…" Kid said with an awkward smile. "But-"

"What? Seriously?" Maka interrupted, gripping his shoulders enthusiastically and feeling a bit of hope for the first time. "You talked to Lord Death? What did he say? What-…what do we have to do to get out of this place?" the blonde asked, searching his eyes, but the shinigami let his gaze drop to the floor in reply.

"Actually, he wasn't even aware that Temples of Death still exist, from what he knew they'd all disappeared a very long time ago. As such, he has absolutely no idea who The Three might be, but it's clear that as long as they keep us in their grasp – and it's quite a tight one if you haven't noticed – we'll never be able to leave. We must defeat them somehow, but that's… well… rather far-fetched if we don't even know what they are. I for one wasn't able to see their souls, that if they have any souls to begin with. My father promised to look into it and I'll have to contact him again, but I think it will take some time."

She nodded slowly, taking a deep breath. She had to be strong and remain patient, even if the blonde for one did not have that much time left. Barely over two months now before I 'come of age'… But Kid looked troubled enough as it was, there was no way she could tell him about her impending marriage. What could he have done about it anyway? It was inconceivable, the meister refused as much as to think of it. Maka chose to shove the matter away from her thoughts for the moment.

"Do you know if… Lord Death has found out anything about the others? Has anyone managed to come back yet?" she asked instead. But the shinigami shook his head and the blonde's stomach cringed painfully, her spirits utterly crushed. She simply wanted to slump to the floor and lay there like a dead thing. But she could not, not while there was still some strength left in her. And she had to know more.

"Kid… you can't summon Beelzebub anymore, can you?" she guessed, her gaze darting towards his bandaged hand. As gently as she could, the other meister took hold of the pale appendage, running her thumb soothingly over the dirty rag. "Care to tell me what happened to your hand?" she whispered, still looking at his hand and not up at his face, because she didn't want to see the pain dwelling in his golden orbs.

"No, they mostly restricted my use of magic, unfortunately, but nothing really happened to my hand. Actually, nothing you would call 'serious'…" The young reaper pulled his hand from hers and unwrapped the piece of cloth, revealing the absence of any visible wound. The skin was flawless, unscathed.

Oh… I see… Maka figured with a scowl. Of course, Kid probably couldn't stand to see the asymmetry caused by having only one ring left so he'd bandaged his whole hand because of that. For the briefest moment, the blonde felt an impulse to slap him again, really hard, for making her worry over nothing, before she realised that the missing ring was still on her finger. A wave of heat rushed to her cheeks upon that thought and she could only hope the shinigami would not notice it.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry… I managed to find this the other day. It had very nearly rolled into a burning pit…" she said, holding up her own hand and hurrying to take off the jewel. She shouldn't have put it on, Maka thought, noticing the peculiar way in which Kid observed how the silver piece hugged her own tiny finger. It was hard to believe that this was actually his ring, she'd never realised he had such delicate fingers himself. "Y-you really should throw something less important next time," the blonde stuttered, uncomfortable.

"You really looked for it, then? Thank you!" Kid couldn't help looking genuinely relieved for having it back and the symmetry of his hands restored once again, yet in the same time he seemed oddly surprised that she'd bothered to do something like this for him in the first place. Maka hurried to pull the black cloak from under her dress as well and give it back to him – as reluctant as she may have been of parting with the additional clothing item the meister knew it would sooner or later prove a bad idea if she kept anything she wasn't supposed to have.

"Well, then… now that we solved this problem, I suppose we have no choice but to wa-"

The words died on her lips as the blonde noticed the young shinigami's eyes widening suddenly. Kid was staring at something past her shoulder, a dark, massive figure reflecting into his enlarged pupils in the dim torchlight. The Brother. He followed me here… And now what? Her ankle was better, but could she take him on this time? Could they take him on? Probably yes, but really, then what? The Brother had seen them together this time, he was going to tell the Older One and then undoubtedly they'd force the truth out of her. Maka squeezed her eyes shut, a pang of terror shooting through her chest making it hard to breathe.

"Maka, I'm afraid that this time we'll have to get rid of him," Kid said coldly and the blonde flinched. Get rid…? But he was human and he wasn't even a kishin egg, his soul wasn't on Lord Death's list. They couldn't possibly kill him! No, no, what was Kid saying?

"There he comes, stand aside!" the young reaper said, pushing her lightly and stepping in front of her. Confronted with such a dismal outcome, Maka half wished that the Brother would turn on his heels and run away, but her pursuer wasn't put off by the sight of Kid in the least. Indeed his gaze seemed to shy away from the reaper, seeking her instead, but his step was steady and his rough features determined, while his gruesome mouth was almost curled into a grin. He thought himself victorious, having trapped her at last, the blonde realised.

"I see now why you'd shy away from me, Maka Albarn," he spat, disdain seeping from his tone, "You've got yourself a lover, haven't you? Are you the Death God's whore now? I should have known, the first time you dared look at him, so shamelessly!"

The meister literally cowered behind Kid, feeling like she'd been slapped. All she could think of was what the Older One would do to her when he found out about this. She almost contemplated confirming the Brother's suspicion and maybe if she did they would not consider making her a wife anymore. But there would be punishment, that much was for sure…

"There's no point in hiding now, he won't save you. Death Gods don't save anyone, you foolish girl, they just give you their embrace, one way or the other…" The Brother stepped closer, continuing to advance until Kid's palm pushed against his chest, halting his movement.

"Are you really seeking a quarrel with me, mortal?" the shinigami asked, his voice still soft but horribly poisonous in the same time. There was a terror-striking, sinister power concealed under his apparently fragile form, Maka realised, a deep darkness which must have dwelled within all reapers, one which she had not come to know and dread until now. And she was suddenly very afraid of Kid, even more than she'd been the night before regaining her memory. Could it have been lying dormant all this time within him, only to have been awakened now by the Black Water? Now the blonde really wanted the Brother to run, as much as she dreaded and loathed him, she wanted him to run, get away from there before something absolutely horrible would happen.

Alas, the man had no such intention. "If you would stoop so low as to put yourself between me and this wretched human girl, then you are no true Death God! I deny you!" he spat, this time facing his opponent directly, without fear.

The young reaper tilted his head a bit to the side, as if in genuine curiosity, while a half-smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "So… it seems you are seeking a quarrel with me…"

Maka couldn't take it anymore, whatever was going to happen, whatever had to happen, she did not want to witness it. Slipping abruptly from behind her friend's shielding frame, the meister darted towards the door, wishing nothing more than to escape that appalling moment. But she did not take more than a few steps before the Brother's hand captured her upper arm, bony fingers with long, sharp talons for nails shooting out from his large sleeve. Maka struggled, desperate to free herself from the man's grip, and screamed when the talons pierced the rough fabric of her garment, digging into her very flesh. The blonde viciously slammed her boot into the side of the stout body, so hard that she expected to hear ribs crack at the impact. But it did not happen and the Brother only let out a short, rasped laughter, his grip tightening as he pulled her closer. Maka's face was brutally stuffed into the folds of his robe, suffocating her. He's going to kill me! By Death, he's going to kill me! the meister thought frantically, continuing to kick him and drive the fist of her free hand into the man's jaw. But he was like made of iron - didn't even budge – and when his other clawed hand fisted in her hair, pulling her head backwards at an impossible angle, Maka knew the battle was lost.

"I am a God of Death and I will now give you my embrace. May the peaceful darkness of death soothe the agony of your life on this earth!" The sinister fingers gradually began easing their grip on her pale strands of hair and Maka was finally able to draw a breath, feeling her chest expanding with momentary relief. "May the deathly winter conquer the scorching summer which was your time among the living and bring the ease of your pain…" The blonde had heard those words countless times, whispered gently by unseen lips in the darkness of the alcoves, meant only for the ears of those about to depart from this world. And now the Brother was dead too, his massive frame slumping to the ground in one fluid motion, collapsing over his prey and bringing her down with him in a heap on the floor.

"What is madness? What makes this beast stir into the minds and the hearts of innocents?" The Older One had slammed his fists onto the cracked wood of the long dining table, upsetting the simple iron cutlery and the clay bowls of the Brothers and Sisters before him. "I shall tell you, madness is the ultimate refusal of rules, the absolute defiance of what it is that one must obey in life!"

Maka struggled to follow his words, although her vision was almost blurred by the pounding ache in her skull. She barely had any recollection of how the previous night had ended, or how she'd made it back to her room. Of how she'd ran from the Temple, unwilling to spare as much as a single glance back, of how she'd washed her own blood away from her tainted dress and sewed the cuts, or of how she'd cleaned and bandaged the wound in her upper arm. It had all faded to a painful blur, mostly from the shock of finding herself so helpless against an attacker for the first time. And he would probably have finished her off if… but no, the awful truth remained etched into her mind – Kid, her classmate, her friend, had killed a man. A man who, well, she couldn't call innocent anymore, not after he'd tried to kill her, but still, he wasn't on the list. Surely the reaper could have knocked him unconscious, or have his memory erased or something (since he'd been able to restore hers). But no, Brother Elgar – she'd heard his name today for the first time – was dead, for his corpse had been discovered lying on the slope below the Temple courtyard, crushed against the jagged rocks.

"And why is it that you should succumb to madness, I ask you!?" the Older One went on, furiously."Does the Temple not give you everything you need? Do you not have clothes on your backs and food on your plates? Do you not have a place to lay your head, out of the cold? And still you seek to take what is not yours to take! Death is a gift our merciful masters make to those unfortunate, stricken by a cruel fate, but you are the servants of Death! This gift shall be made to you as well, precisely when your time comes and the masters will it and not a moment sooner! It is not yours to take as you please, as that fool Elgar thought he was able, thought he was free to do! I should have seen the signs of madness in him, the destruction he's caused and all, but my eyes failed me this time. They will not do so again and anyone who attempts taking that which is not theirs to take shall feel the wrath of our masters!"

To be continued

A/N - Okay, so... it seems I managed to make this chapter quite sinister... let me know what you think of it and what you think will happen next ;) (Damn it , just when I was being so proud of myself for having stopped writing stupid author notes... bah!)