Hey guys, I see you've noticed that I'ev updated/revised this Mary Sue Fic! Well, yeah, so enjoy it now, because I'm rehauling the whole fic so it makes more sense, and is less annoying. GO TEAM SOUL EATER!
PROLOGUE: A Slightly Different World
Click. Click. Click.
The metronome sways. It teeters slowly, back and forth like a rocking chair, without a hesitation or misstep. My heart fails to follow the simple rhythm, skipping a beat now and then.
Refusing to keep up.
Refusing life altogether.
Legs straining against the message screaming from my brain. Unresponsive to its warnings against running any further. But why I should stop is irrelevant. I knew I should have gone to the school first, but something was pulling me. My heart was stuttering, threatening to give out on me if I didn't follow the unknown call.
After so long, who would blame it? Right now I could barely remember what it was that I was supposed to do. What was my mission? What year was it? Why did any of it matter anyway? I was warm and that's all that mattered. It was dark, but I'd seen darker. Much darker. The true evil dwelling within a witch's heart for example.
It was strange, and relieving, to feel my thoughts slowly draining away. Like sludge down a kitchen sink. Only an hour ago that blast of pink light had scorched my mind, leving the peices to retreat into the same darkness whence I had escaped.
It was fading now, the three numbers I had searched for. 283. The numbers I recognized from the file she had given me. Thinking over it a moment, who was she in the first place? At this point it didn't matter because finally, I was here. But just as soon as I arrived my will weakened, my eyesight becoming blurry, and my body collapsed on the steps of the apartment.
After a time, that familiar feeling of drowning fills my lungs. Only now, with my eyes still shut, do I realize that while I was unconscious it had begun to rain. My face had been sitting in a gathering puddle for a while. Adding to this, the gash on the back of my head aches something fierce, as if it couldn't let me forget its presence. And then I simply forget.
The metronome speeds up.
I panic, not remembering how I got here.
Where was I? Dead? I wish I was that lucky. But why do I wish that? My neck hurts, my head throbs, and my back…it's burning. My entire body feels locked up, as if I were paralyzed by something more than the fear that is spilling over into my thoughts. My eyes refuse to open, they simply can't. Why couldn't I open my eyes?
All of the sounds around me are drowned out by the constant static of the rain. Except for a voice. Voices, actually.
Could others see me? Where was I?
Who was I?
"Soul! Come over here!" A girl's voice cut through the rain. Shock clearly conveyed by the sudden shrillness of her voice.
Another concerned voice, deeper than the first.
"What is it Maka?" A boy was there also.
The metronome slows.
It sounded as if they had found me. My eyes... had to see where I was. Slowly, but too slowly for my own liking, they opened.
The metronome nearly stops. Time seems to have stopped, unthawing only when I blink away the tears. I don't recall the last time I'd ever seen such a look in a persons eyes. Ruby red eyes that were gazing down at me with unfathomable pity. It was now, as I looked upwards, that I saw the boy I had heard before when my eyes were closed to all. It was hard to see, and no wonder, my eyelids were so swollen I could barely even move my eyes.
"Is she okay?" asked the girl I assumed was Maka. "There's so much blood."
Blood? It was disorienting, sitting there. But I indeed looked down and found that I could at least move my fingers. They were sticky, and caked with something. Yes, it appeared to be blood. Blood, blood everywhere. My back burned, wherever my own blood seemed to touch me it felt as if it was on fire. Involuntarily I shuddered in the cold, rainy night. Under this small overhang of the entrance to the building, there were few dry spots, I knew. The small space ground not wetted by rain was marred by blood, and in this weak light it seemed obsidian.
A lightning bolt seemed to have passed though my being as the pain suddenly began to register with my consciousness. "My back!" I yelled, slumping to my side. From my spot on the ground I could barely see the blood smeared against the bricks of the wall where I had been propped. And then the world spins, turning on it's head.
...
"Soul, look." Maka pointed to the long, jagged slash sunk into the girl's back. "She's breathing, right?" After a quick examination he nodded.
"Yeah, but she's still bleeding, too." Soul frowned. "Maka. Go get help, now!"
"Right." She ran off, leaving Soul and the girl behind.
"Soul?" said the girl confused. He laid a hand on her head, which was matted with damp curls. Feverish. He knew that this wasn't a good sign, but he hoped she'd pull through this, and quickly took off his leather jacket.
"It's okay, you're safe now." He assured her even though he didn't be lieve it him self. If she was to die, let it at least be with some hope.
Soul. That was such a familiar name.
"We'll help you," he said, gingerly wrapping her in the jacket.
You're going to save me? she thought. Her thoughts were muddied by the crippling pain.
"Help?" rasped the girl. Her tears, they burned also as they gathered at the corners of her eyes.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you," he promised.
You're going to save me?
You're going to save me?
You're going to save me from my destiny.
"Save me."
/ / /
Chapter One: "Save me"- A dying soul's call for help?
What was it that she saw first? If you asked her, she would say: "Silver hair." Soul was fast asleep in the wooden chair next to the medical cot. A faint breeze wafted in through the open windows. Above them a small fan circulated, mixing the stale and fresh air somewhat.
What was it that she heard first? It was hard to tell, between the heart monitor, and Soul's even snores.
"You're awake." This new voice startled her, it wasn't Soul. The sudden noise had stirred fear within her heart and so she whimpered. "That's good," continued the old Meister. "I may like dissection, but I prefer live patients to autopsies." The gray-haired doctor smiled at her. "How are you feeling?"
She whimpered in answer.
What was it that she smelled first? The sickening, tangy smell of anti septic; and then there was that doctor in a lab coat. There was no mistaking it, she was in a hospital, the worst possible place she could be.
"Sc-scary," muttered the girl, half to herself.
It was this word Stein picked up on. "Scary?" he asked. The adjective could frequently be used to describe him.
"S-scared," she eventually stammered out, giving him a fearful look with her large brown eyes.
Okay, now he understood. That blow to her head had messed up some things, didn't it? Stein looked over her chart once more taking in the scanty information they had collected on the visitor.
"You have no need to be scared of me," he assured her, even though it was a complete lie. "I fixed up your back and your head." He pointed to the bandages now surrounding her skull and arms. "Granted, there was a lot of blood loss, and a few stitches were in order, but you're extremely lucky that you survived the operation. Even more than Soul Eater there. He's one of the few that has survived my operations, and surprisingly you are another survivor."
At the sound of his name, Soul began to wake up. "Wa? Huh? Someone—," he yawned, "callin' me?" He looked over to the girl. "Oh. You're awake. Feeling okay?"
Stein cleared his throat and spoke up. "I'm afraid the blunt force trauma to her skull may have given her a concussion...in along with a minor case of brain damage." Stein looked over the chart in his hands. "She can hardly speak."
"Really now?" he looked over to the girl. "I'm Soul Eater Evans, but just call me 'Soul'. It's cooler that way. What's your name?" He gave his classic smile, showing all of his jagged teeth.
"Soul," echoed the girl shyly. A light blush spread across her tan cheeks. "Soul Eater." She giggled. Her heart monitor beeped faster. Evans? That name was familiar.
"It seems she likes you, Soul," teased the older man. However tears welled up in her big oval eyes when she noticed Dr. Stein once again.
"Scary-ed, scared!" she cried, clutching Soul's arm. "Scary doctor." But when she saw that she was grabbing Soul, she shrunk back, unsure of whether it was okay if she touched him.
Somehow, Soul immediately understood the apprehension.
"I don't think she likes doctors much," he announced. She nodded slowly, her fist in front of her eyes. "Maybe you should take off your lab coat, " he suggested to the older man.
Stein reluctantly shrugged off the white coat. "Better?" he droned. Professor Stein never liked to go anywhere without it, and it was a shame that she was uncooperative when she was frightened so easily.
Very cautiously Soul removed her fist from in front her face. "Hey, is this any better?"
She stopped crying and nodded. "Like." She said pointing to Stein. "Cute now,"the girl muttered, looking down in a bit of embarrassment at the declaration.
"He's cute now, huh?" Soul cracked up, chuckling at the thought of someone thinking Stein was cute.
"Like glasses," she added. "No smoke should?" She signaled to throw away the cigarette.
At her later comment, Soul smirked. "She's calling you out on your smoking already. Brain damage, my ass!" He threw in a little chuckle.
With a scowl, Stein put out his cigarette but secretly saved some of it in his pocket for later.
A while after, maybe five minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," said Stein. To Soul's surprise, Maka, Crona, and Black*Star filed in.
"What're you guys doing here?" Soul asked them.
"I told them," said Maka. "And I thought it would be a good idea to check on...uh...well we don't exactly know your name, do we?" she asked the girl awkwardly, grinning with nervous excitement.
"Is this the girl?" said Black*Star, rubbing his nose with his finger. He snorted. "At least she's not as flat as Maka."
"What was that?" Maka whipped around and lodged a book in the middle of his spiky head.
"Um, I said that a big star like me doesn't care if you're flat as a board." There was another direct hit with the Maka-chop, succeeded by another.
'Criti cal hit! His HP is getting low! BLACK*STAR cannot be recalled right now!'
"I-I'm sorry! Don't hit me anymore!" He pleaded with folded hands.
"I accept your apology, Black*Star."
The girl giggled. "Funny," she said in a small voice.
"Oh, she talked!" said Black*Star.
"Loud boy. Black*Star?" she pointed to the brash ninja-boy, looking at Maka all the while.
Black*Star crossed his arms. "She talks weird."
"Brain damage," protested the girl, but not too loudly. "Concussion." She looked at Soul. "Soul help." Then her eyes moved on to Maka. "Maka too... Thanks!"
The whole crew smiled. Crona moved his face from behind Maka to have a look at the new-found friend. His dark blue eyes stared at the girl intently; for some reason she looked very familiar.
"I'm C-c-crona. What's your name?" whispered the tall boy. Recently, Maka had been instructing him on how to be more social, and it was paying off. Now he could even ask simple questions like that to people he just met.
Immediately she frowned. Her name? It was fuzzy in her mind. Of course, it was one of the few things anyone couldn't forget, albeit the words formed with a bit of effort.
"Sa~," she said slowly. "Hmmm," her brow crinkled. "Sar~a, Sa~ra, Sarah." She her first name at least.
"Sarah? Th-that's a pretty name." Crona smiled and blushed. Sarah couldn't help but smile back; the lavender-haired swordsman was so adorable when he was embarrassed.
"Sarah, it it? What were you doing there?" asked Maka, who wanted to know the specifics right away. "Who did that to you?" As to why Sarah had been half-dead when they found her, that was the thing she wanted to know the most.
Memories flashed by in painful aches, and Sarah's eyes moved to her lap. When she finally spoke her voice was a whisper.
"B-b-bad. Bad people." She managed through the tears, looking at her hands. They were bandaged thoroughly, and she clenched them tightly. The stains on them were red—for now.
"How'd you end up all cut up like that? What did they do? " asked Soul. It was only a second later that he wished he hadn't.
"Scythe," she whispered.
The metronome, the metronome.
Her heart monitor went insane, emitting short, erratic beeps.
Sarah's mind snapped as if she had black blood flowing in her veins. Her speech suddenly improved for some reason, shallow breaths escaping her mouth along with the frightened words ambling out. "They hunted me down!" she yelled, scrambling frantically to get up, her eyes immersed in another time completely. "Chased me! I wanted to go, to leave, but that man sent them, weapons!" A hand was set on her shoulder, but she was still in another place. "Leave me alone!" Her eyes widened in the expectation of a blow. "A Scythe.." she whispered before her voice rose again. "I was trying to run I, I—," Sarah gripped her face so hard her nails dug into her face so that it bled. From her mouth she emitted a shriek so loud it sounded like Ragnarök's Scream Resonance. Everyone covered their ears. Despite the agonizing shriek, Soul somehow grabbed her stiff shoulders. Sarah needed to calm down, and quickly.
"Sarah!" Soul yelled as he shook her. "Sarah, snap out of it!" Obediently her eyes suddenly sprang open, but they seemed pupil-less, blank, dead. "Sa rah?" Her heart monitor suddenly flat-lined, the long beep filling the room with panic.
Stein jumped into action, realizing that there was no time for them to bring in the equipment. Would his soul-wavelength be enough to restart her heart? It was worth a try.
"I need someone to do the rescue breaths Soul stay here," he swiftly relayed the orders to the kids. "Stand clear!" Everyone shuffled back a few feet. "Soul," Stein beckoned to the white-haired teen, who was at once at his side. "Match my wavelength so you don't get hurt."
"Right," said Soul, understanding while he adjusted his wavelength as instructed.
"Now!" alerted the doctor. Bright yellow sparks flowed into her chest and disap peared. Soul pressed his lips against Sarah's. They were frozen. "Again!" More sparks, more breaths.
Wake up, damn it! Wake up; don't give up.
…
Sarah woke up to the sound of her heart beat on the monitor, with Soul staring down into her eyes. It was already the next morning; she'd been asleep for at least another day.
"You made it," sighed the older boy as he relaxed his tense shoulders. His clothes were different, but he looked ragged, as if he'd been awake for hours.
"S-soul." Surprised that she even remembered his name, Sarah sat up slowly, wincing as she brought her hand lightly over her face in confusion. "What happened?"
"Seriously, you don't remember?" He thought back to her little episode. "Maybe it's best you forget. You're still weak so don't strain yourself. Sarah, you should lie back down."
Sarah gasped, clutching the sheets.
.Sa.
"Sarah, you should lie down," the man in the lab coat crept ever forward with the hollow syringe.
"Some more blood is needed for the tests." He said this matter-o-factly, as if what he was doing was justified.
"…" Sitting on the cot, I glared at him and pressed my back to the cold cement wall. Slowly, uncertainly, I shook my head, no more blood, no more purple stains on my hands. "No."
"What is that?" he smiled, yet I knew of the cruelty beneath that innocent exterior. "Is that, Free Will? Sarah," it was disgusting how he could say my name so kindly, "Do you want to lose your soul? I could take that away from you…among other things." It was then he grabbed my arm by force, pulling the glinting steel needle closer and closer.
My heartbeat was in my ears, my head rang, and the last thing I remember was: Blood. When I came to, a red orb had already floated down in front of me. With short inspection I realized it was his soul. Blood was spattered every where like in some twisted crime novel, and my heart stuttered at such an uneasy yet familiar sight. Sobbing quietly to myself, I hid in the corner, scrunched into a ball; I knew they were going to punish me. They always punish me.
I'd killed someone—again.
…
"No." Sarah's face was dour as she dropped her hands from her mass of hair and stopped gripping the thin material covering her legs. "I don't want to lie down," she said, without a trace of emotion.
Soul nodded, understanding. "S'okay, you don't have to." He sat on the edge of the bed cautiously, with his hands in his pockets. She said a scythe had hurt her,he thought.
"W-where am I?" asked Sarah, she looked around, taking in her surroundings, trying to memorize each and every thing that she saw.
"Hm? Oh at the DWMA." Soul watched her slow, confused movements as she shifted around on the bed. Her eyes then uncertainly flickered to his face and Soul felt in credibly vulnerable when he was under her gaze.
"Death-weapon-miester-academy? That DWMA?" her voice was light, clear, and song-like, but still hoarse-sounding, as if she was unaccustomed to speaking. Or rather, she screamed quite a lot.
"Is there any other?"
"I was trying to get here—I think. I'm not sure I remember too well. I was running so fast, and then…" her words dropped off at that point.
He gave her a long, strange look before nodding slowly. "Were you try ing to enroll?"
Sarah's voice sounded a bit stressed baffled even. "I don't know. Maybe. There was a reason I tried to escape her though." Her brow was crinkled in that same way as yesterday.
"Escape?" Soul raised an eyebrow. Color blossomed over her tan cheeks, but it was unnoticed by Soul because of her dark complexion.
"Did I say escape? Maybe I was. Have you ever tried to—"Suddenly she stopped talking, her face went blank, and she felt her eyes wouldn't stop staring into Soul's own. She couldn't stop. He felt unnerved that those incredibly brown eyes peered into him. Soul, felt something was…wandering inside his mind, floating around, scurrying. Searching.
.So.
"Come on," said the little devil. "I can give you power."
"Soul, you jerk!" screamed Maka, "I wish you all would just die!"
"Say eight, damn it!" yelled Kid.
"I beat a Grimm Reaper!" Black*Star laughed.
"So you're a weapon, huh?" Wes asked. "Does this mean you're leav ing?"
…
All of the emotions and images associated with the various memories floated by, and Soul was left unusually calm. "What was that?" asked Soul af ter the strange moment had passed.
Sarah held her head in her arms, the sudden download of information had given her a slight migraine. "Augh, my head. I don't know, but...Somehow I know you've had it rough."
"What are you talking about?" He was damned if she knew anything about his life at all! "You keep saying you don't know stuff, and then you go all cryptic on me."
Risking soundling insane, she told him."I think—I may have accidentally peeked into your mind."
At this Soul just had to laugh.
"I'm serious!" insisted Sarah, some energy surging through her now, as her face was tinged with pink once again. "You play piano, right?"
"You could have asked anyone that."
"You like to eat tons of food."
"Maka complains about that all the time," responded Soul, eyes closed innocently.
Sarah dug deeper into the few memories she had gleaned. "How," she ventured carefully, "would I know about Blair, then?"
Now Soul felt flushed. He looked askance and tried to play it down. "S-same thing," he stammered. "Maka told you."
Sarah sighed, wondering how Maka had told her, when she's just recovered from who-knows-what and hadn't seen the perky little scythemeister since her panic attack.
She turned to the side of the bed opposite the open windows, and tried to get up to stretch.
Big mistake. She was dressed in one of those hospital gowns, since her clothes had been ruined by the blood and rain. It just so happened that a strong gust of wind blasted through the windows and exposed her bare buttocks, nature is pretty perverted that way. Not only that, but the scar from her recent operation could be seen on her back, extending from her left shoulder to her right hip.
Suddenly Soul could feel all of the blood in his body rush to his face, creating a strong possibility of a nosebleed. But it never happened, he just turned really red.
However, Sarah hardly flinched. She turned around, took one look at Soul, and laughed.
"Your face is as red as your eyes," said Sarah, pointing to Soul shyly.
"Yeah, well, um…Maka left you some clothes if you needed any." Which you do.He picked up the little blue bag with one hand and handed it to her gently.
"Thank you."
Her smile is sort of cool,thought Soul as she accepted the present.
…
He excused himself to give her some privacy, and when he left the room he saw Stein leaning on the wall outside the Infirmary's door.
"Hey," said Soul. But Stein didn't hear him, as the professor was deep in thought and staring at the chart in his hands intently. It wasn't long for Soul to spot what Stein was concentrating on. "This her chart?" he asked the man, louder this time. Soul laid a finger on the photo displayed next to the ID number. "She doesn't look like that now," he said while examining it further.
In fact, it looked as if it were a much older picture of the girl, because Sarah looked significantly younger. Her small face was smiling, one front tooth missing. The usual, carefree child's photo, comlete with hobo teeth.
Stein lifted the chart out of his view. "Yes, I had to have this chart sent in after I reported that you had found someone. Lord Death recognized her, of course."
"Like, personally?" pried Soul. It wouldn't be too surprising, actually. More shocking things have happened.
"Maybe," said Stein, turning away to walk off. "But have work to do, so if you'll excuse me, Soul? There are things I have to figure out."
"Uh, sure professor." Soul watched him walk away. "Wait, who'll watch Sarah?"
"You could," Stein said before turning the corner. Before Soul could interject, the Meister added: "Of course, that is if you're willing to miss class again."
You didn't have to tell that Weapon twice, he kept his mouth shut. Missing class to watch some girl, now that was a sweet deal. Of course, he didn't know at the time how strange this girl really was, but Soul had a feeling he was going to find out soon.