Maka

Kid was sitting with Crona and his Weapons, Liz and Patti. Black Star was standing, arms crossed, while Tsubaki sat beside him. Soul, my Weapon, stood to the right of me while Kylie stood to my left. In front of us, Stein, Ms. Marie (though rumors were going around that Stein was going to marry her), and Murphy stood, talking about what to do. After nearly half-an-hour of talking, they finally turned to us.

"The DWMA has decided not to help Riley." Stein said.

Everyone shouted, protesting against DWMA's decision. Riley had, in one way or another, helped everyone.

"But!" Murphy shouted. "We ain't DWMA no more. Ye' see, ta' help Riley-boy, we gotta stop workin' fer DWMA. It's gonna be risky, aye. But if I have ta' die fer Riley, I'm gonna die a proud Irishman."

"Like Murphy said," Stein said, since there was a history of people not able to understand Murphy, "if you are going on this mission, you will be temporarily removed from the DWMA. We won't have Shinigami-san's backing, an no one else but the people in this room are going to fight Cain. It's going to be dangerous, but if you came here, you probably don't care."

"If yer not gonna fight fer Riley to tha' death, leave now." Murphy said.

Not a single person left the room.

Riley

I woke up next to Maka, her back turned in bed. I smiled as I moved closer, and put my hand on her shoulder. She turned, her eyes open, and instead of her beautiful olive eyes I saw dark blue eyes.

"Get away!" I shouted, jumping up. I was fully clothed in a suit, and instead of a peaceful Irish home Cain was sitting in front of me in a black suit, black shirt, black pants, and a blue tie. He had a thin, starved, clean-shaven face with dark blue eyes that had seen more deaths than the most experienced soldier.

"What's wrong? Marrying Maka is what you dream of, isn't it?" Cain asked.

"I don't want any of your sickening dreams." I growled.

"What do you want, then?" Cain asked, standing up.

"I want to see what you're really doing. I don't want some false life forced into my head!" I shouted.

"You should learn, boy, that looking too hard will only reveal what you won't like to see." Cain said, snapping his fingers. A giant square opened in the infinite darkness, and what I saw took a few moments to comprehend.

Then the penny dropped.

Maka was pinned to a wall by a pale hand on her throat. Her olive eyes were almost completely closed, but were clinging to life. Maka's left cheek was swollen, and blood was dried on her right cheek.

"What are you doing?" I shouted.

Cain began laughing. "They attacked first. And, technically, it's your fault. I never could've taken on Kid, Black Star and Kylie on at the same time in Soul's body."

"Stop talkin' ta my boy like that." Someone said.

"Who are-! NO!" Cain shouted. An old man with greying hair, green eyes and a goatee walked to me.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Yer Grandpa. I fought Cain 'fore." Murphy said. "Stand still. Exorcisin' ya's gonna hurt."

I gritted my teeth. "I know. But I'm Irish. I'll deal with it."

"Good lad." Murphy said, drawing his fist back and punching me with his wavelength.

Kylie

It'd taken us a month, but we'd finally tracked down Abel. We were all waiting on the London bridge, tense as could be. All of us made a deal that, if we lost a fight with him, Abel would absorb our energy.

"It's going to be okay." I said aloud.

"I know." Maka said. "We'll pull through."

We heard an odd clicking noise from the distance. It was exactly like Riley's slightly limping way of walking.

"Hell, the gang's all here." Abel smiled. He looked so much like Riley...but he looked so unlike him, too.

"Are you ready to fight?" Maka asked, all business. Her fists were clinched, literally shaking with rage. In that moment, I realized that Maka and Riley were absolutely insane for each other. And that it was so obvious nobody really saw it.

A scythe materialized, and Abel grabbed it.

"Are you ready to meet Riley's no-good father in hell?" Abel asked.

Maka shot forward, screaming.