Chapter 3

The trip had taken three days, the dunes in the sand making a relatively long walk even longer. Eventually they reached the top of a dune and saw two things. An oasis and what appeared to be a port city at the edge of a lush forest. The docks stretched out creating a maze across the desert sand.

"ALL RIGHT, WE'RE FINALLY HERE!" Soul roared at the mocking sun "Let's go!"
Maka delivered a swift chop to his skull causing him to fall and get a mouth full of sand. Ches cringed at the sound the book made.
"Wait a second Soul we can't go charging in recklessly. We don't know what we are up against, I haven't finished my plan, and we are all tired from the walk. We wouldn't last a minute, remember this person has wiped out the entire town and killed most of the DWMA's scouts that came here.
"All right all right." Soul said sitting up. "It would help if you would stop hitting me" he mumbled into his hand. "So what do you suggest we do"
"hmm" Maka started thinking
"Why don't we go into the oasis to rest? That way we will be out of the heat and can recuperate better." Ches said giving his two cents. He out of all three was sweating the most and from time to time would clutch at the fabric of his shirt over his heart. "Besides it will be night soon."
"All right." Maka agreed

Hours later the moon was out and the trio was sitting around a fire. Maka was erasing furiously at the slip of paper that contained her plan. Suddenly the eraser pushed through the paper causing her to crumple it up, toss it in the fire, and to scream at the moon which seemed to be chuckling at her frustration.
"Ghaa. I give up. I don't have enough info to make an effective plan. There are too many unknown variables at play. We don't even know what kind of weapon this person is." Maka exclaimed dropping her head letting her bangs cover her eyes.
She looked up at the two weapons in front of her. Soul was sprawled out across a log staring at the stars. Then she noticed Ches. Even though it was freezing in the dessert night he was sweating, and he occasionally would cringe at an unseen pain and clutch at his chest.
"What's wrong?" Maka inquired
"huh?" Ches's head snapped up "oh nothing."
Maka was skeptic but decided to let it be, for now. "Death said your power, Empathy, would help us understand the girl better. And when the train hit the soul wavelength you said something like there was a lot of pain. What did you mean by that? And why did your hand start to bleed?" Maka was more observant than he thought.

Ches sighs and starts to explain. "What I said was so much pain and what I meant by that is that whoever is the source of that wavelength is that they are in excruciating pain. So much in fact that they really shouldn't even be able to move."
Maka filed this in for the battle plan.
"As for why my hand started to bleed, my ability Empathy does more than tell me what the people are feeling. The people's emotions have usually an only slight effect on me. In this case," Ches started to lift the bottom of his hoody. "With so much pain the effect, without bracing myself, was stronger." As he spoke bruises all across his torso were forming, deepening, and spreading.
Maka gasped at the extent of the welts. Ches put his hoody back down. Soul was sitting up now.

"This person who ever they are, they are in a lot of pain." Ches said flinching in pain again. Another bruise started its way up his neck from his hoody "What's weird is that it doesn't feel like how people normally feel pain. Like through a cut or something like getting dumped by a boyfriend or girlfriend, its… more like their entire soul itself is in pain."

Maka and Soul swallowed simultaneously.
"Anyways did any of that help you with your plan Maka?" Ches said flicking his smile back into its usual place.
"Ahem no." Maka cleared her throat pulling out a new piece of paper and started making a new list. "I'm sorry but no I don't see how we could use this."
Ches and Soul get up to look over her shoulder at her new list.
"As of right now we know that the target is trapped in the city… for now, we also know that she can supposedly sense when people are near her so that rules out a sneak attack or spying to get more Intel, and we know she uses a bladed weapon of some sort." For each point she drew a little diagram to point everything out. "I can't figure out any type of coherent plan." Maka growled.
"So it seems my plan is the only plan we got" Soul grinned evilly "Rush forward swinging."
Maka sighs griping the paper. "It would seem Soul that you are right. We have to stop her before she can kill more people and become a Kishin."

They all went to their respective sleeping spots to get some last little bit of shuteye before the battle they all knew was coming tomorrow.

Ches was lying in the spot he had made to sleep staring straight at the stars and the chuckling moon, thinking. He was trying to figure out what all this pain swirling around him like a typhoon meant. "Why does her wavelength feel like this" he wondered out loud softly so not to wake anyone.

"Asura's wavelength felt nothing like this. His felt like nothing, like an emptiness that went on forever that wanted to swallow up everything, but at the very bottom of it was the base emotion of fear and hate."

"But this… this feels… it feels like someone crying out for help. It feels like someone begging for someone to come and stop the pain. It feels like a beggar, begging for something to end the pain, begging for death"

With those final words he fell silent. His mind still a wir, but eventually sleep found him and he welcomed it to put a stop to the buzz in his head.

Soul stayed silent. He had been awake the entire time and had heard what Ches had said. Now his mind was alive with thoughts. All of which were swept away when he heard a blood curdling scream emanate across the desert. That scream scared Soul. It scared him more than Asura. It came from the town.