CHAPTER 20

A/N – Aaaand we are back, ladies and gents, with a brand new chapter of EDKL! I realise that last time I must have given you a bit of a fright, but come on now, Kid is a Death God, therefore he cannot die, for that and for several other reasons. Such as, if he had died he would have escaped Lord Death's wrath for having married while still underage, or for having married period, because at the end of the day we don't know what shinigamis understand by 'underage'… whatever. But THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is – if he would have died, he would have missed the apparition of the fabulous, epic, magnanimous, miraculous… you-know-who.

Maka blinked sleepily in the warm afternoon glow, the golden light pouring in through the window near her bed half filtered through her eyelashes. The blonde meister was so tired, past the burn out of her body she'd strained past any human limits, but it didn't matter. She lay in bed, even though most of her wounds were fully healed now, in an accursed state of numbness. She was home, although she had no memory of how she'd gotten here in the first place, and nobody was telling her anything, beyond the same tedious few words – that she should rest. And rest she did, she had been falling in and out of a sickly sleep which never allowed her to regain full consciousness. But now at least she was a bit more aware and could tell that her father was there, the Death Scythe's long, slender fingers gingerly caressing his daughter's hair.

"Are you mad at me, Papa?" Maka asked, still staring out the window, albeit blankly, unable to focus on the view.

Spirit gasped, or she thought he did. "Oh, no! No, sweetheart, of course Papa is not mad at you!" he blurted out, in a hurry to reassure her, instantly pulling her into his arms. "Papa could never be mad at you!"

Unconsciously, the blonde leaned into him – Maka had never been close to her father, ever since her parents had divorced she had never trusted him enough for that – but now, for some reason, his solid frame, his strong, familiar body brought her a much needed sense of comfort.

"Help me, Papa…" she whispered, forcing her eyes to remain open, because right now she did not have the strength to face the darkness waiting behind her eyelids if she were to close them. "If he dies, my world will end"

The Death Scythe only pressed his lips into her hair in reply, his large, warm hand soothingly rubbing her fragile shoulder. "My little Maka, don't be afraid. Papa is here with you"

"Good thing I know how to prepare a damned chicken soup, because all you can produce is fried fish! Oh, I'm sorry, burned fish!" resounded a familiar voice in the hallway, a certain voice Maka had thought she'd never get to hear again, before the door of her small bedroom was cracked slowly and only to allow her partner to slip inside.

"Soul?"

The white haired scythe placed the steamy bowl of soup he was currently holding on the nightstand and gave her his trademark shark toothed grin. "In the flesh," he confirmed, before leaning to embrace her tightly. "I would have come to see you earlier, but your father and Dr. Stein both said you were too weak to get any visitors, not even cool ones like me!" he added, pulling playfully at a strand of her loose hair.

The blonde blinked, a bit puzzled, as her pale lips fought to form a faint smile. "By Death, Soul, I thought… thought I lost you… What happened? How did you get back?" she asked as she took the bowl from his hands and took a tentative sip. Compared to what she'd eaten in the past year, the taste was simply divine.

The scythe boy sighed, but kept smiling. "It's a bit of a long story actually and I still can't believe it's been more than a year since… since we were separated. But Blair found me and brought me back. With this occasion I found out that she'd put a spell on me so she'd always know where I was or if I was in any danger. What can I say, she couldn't resist me"

"Blair? Wow…" The blonde closed her eyes and sighed in relief, a burden lifted from the heart. At least Soul was fine and he'd come back to her. As for him and Blair, she'd always secretly suspected that they were – despite all the pretense they kept and of course, despite the fact that the purple haired witch girl was actually a cat – an item. Having concluded that, the meister gulped some more of the hot soup, savoring the rich taste.

"But what happened to you? I only understood that you and Kid were stranded in some strange place together all this time!" Soul wanted to know.

Maka suddenly sat up from the pillows, alert." Kid? What happened to him?" she cried, setting the bowl aside.

"Um… I don't know really. You were brought at the Academy by his magic skateboard, but you were both trashed and unconscious. Trashed badly! Luckily it turned out that your wounds were not so serious, but Kid… I don't know, I've heard that Lord Death had to take care of him personally all this time, because there was something involving magic, or his wounds were very bad… He hasn't been showing up at the Academy – Lord Death I mean - for three weeks now, ever since you arrived-"

"Soul, please! I need to know what happened to Kid! I need to know if he's alright!" Maka interrupted pleadingly, gripping his arm. "I need to-"

"Maka, calm down," the scythe boy said softly, trying to push her back on the pillows, "he's a shinigami, I mean what could happen to him? I'm sure he'll recover"

"You don't understand, Soul, Kid is my husband! If something happens to him…" she stopped, sniffing and shaking her head. When she looked up again, she noticed that her partner was completely perplexed.

"He is what?" Now Soul's smile had disappeared completely. "Maka, I don't think you're feeling too well," he said almost scared. "Kid as in 'Death the Kid, Lord Death's son' is not your husband. He's just our friend and classmate and-"

Maka sighed, feeling incredibly worn again. "He's my husband, Soul. Look," she said, holding up her left hand bearing the young shinigami's skull shaped ring. "And that's why I've become a half-shinigami myself now, look at my eyes"

Soul looked, his gaze wandering back and forth between her now gold-ringed eyes and the ring on her tiny finger, and for a while simply stood there silent, scratching his head and disturbing his unruly spiked hair even further.

"But… you two weren't even… that close… if I remember correctly," he said eventually.

"Um… yeah, it kind of happened, you know," the blonde muttered, aware that it wasn't much of an explanation.

"Huh… I-I don't know what to say, Maka," Soul replied. "I mean Kid is okay, he really is but… I guess he could be like… your boyfriend or something. But husband sounds a bit… I don't know… extreme? At our age and all…"

Maka nodded. "I know. And you're right, except… pretty much everything we went through this past year was quite extreme. Kid married me at first to save me from a horrible situation and… so we kind of skipped the boyfriend-girlfriend phase"

"So, um… what does Lord Death think about this? Not to mention… your father"

Maka had slipped out of the apartment as Soul and Blair were having yet another heated argument on the subject of cooking or lack thereof. She had not bothered to dress – her large sweatpants and old t-shirt were just fine as far as she was concerned momentarily – and only when she was already out in the street she'd noticed that she was barefoot. But it didn't matter. All it mattered now was the dread that Lord Death was going to punish Kid for what had happened between them. And she simply couldn't let that happen, not only because she loved him but because she couldn't bear to have him punished for something she'd been the cause of all along. The meister could only pray that the shinigami would listen to her and would eventually be made to see reason.

By the time she made it to the Academy, her body had once again begun to burn with fever. People would look at her, they would stare and they would whisper, but she was blind and deaf to their presence. She knew from her father that Lord Death would be at the Academy today and she had to see him, speak to him no matter what. The blonde could only hope she wasn't too late.

As she walked determined towards the Death Room, as fast as her weak legs could carry her, Maka began to be afraid. Somehow she couldn't help being reminded of the time when she'd caught a glimpse of the darkness dwelling inside Kid, the night he'd killed the first Brother. It was something instinctive, inborn, something absolutely horrid yet completely suitable for a Death God, meant to manifest when needed. Fortunately, with Kid it had only manifested when truly needed, but as far as Lord Death was concerned there was no knowing… aside from the fact that he must have been quite furious about what had happened. And she could only hope her father wasn't there to stop her.

Feeling almost dizzy and with her breath already labored from the sheer effort of running all this way, Maka advanced under the long row of guillotines at the entrance. She couldn't back away now. Fortunately Lord Death was there, watching something through his mirror, and he was alone. By Death, if he'd only listen to me…

"Lord Death!" the blonde meister breathed out, finding it impossible to raise her voice past that faint sound.

The shinigami turned abruptly, abandoning his mirror, as a puzzled look made its way on his white skull mask. "Maka?"

She gulped, nails digging in the flesh of her palms as she inwardly struggled, suddenly unable to find her words. "Lord Death, I just wanted to say…" she paused and shook her head "I want to say that everything was my fault. Everything!" At this point tears began welling down her cheeks and she wiped them quickly, with a trembling hand. "I was… such a coward that I wanted to kill myself and I was so scared and I… I forced Kid to marry me. I swear, it wasn't his fault, none of it!"

"Oh, Maka…" Lord Death whispered, but the blonde didn't hear him.

"He did everything to protect me, to keep me safe, even though I didn't deserve it! So if there's a price to be paid, if you must punish someone, punish me! If you need to strike someone, strike me! I'm not afraid of anything!"

At this point Maka could no longer stand and she dropped to her knees, cowering until her forehead touched the cold floor. "Please, just don't hurt him! He's innocent! Please!"

The shinigami sighed, gliding closer and gingerly scooping the girl's trembling, sobbing form into his arms. "Oh, my poor child, you are burning with fever! Do not torment yourself this way… sleep now," he said softly and everything went black.

To be continued

A/N – I know this chapter was a tad short, but it's only because it's the dramatic preparation for the ending. Yes, next chapter will be the last AND the most important, because EXCALIBUR will be in it! It's unavoidable, imminent, we cannot escape it anymore! LOL. So let me know – what do you think will happen? Will they be separated by cruel fate? Will love triumph? Will Excalibur appear as a hot guy (someone suggested that)? Victory and glory? Guess…