A/N - I wrote nearly 4000 words over the past 7 hours. I am a goddamn force of nature and cannot be stopped. I should probably be stopped, though. This is definitely a very long chapter right here (over 5000 words, counting the author notes), so buckle in your seat belts. I think we're nearly at the 50k word mark, too!
This chapter was one I wanted to write as quickly as possibly, because Dr. Stein kind of scares me a little (read: a lot), I'm not going to lie. He's an interesting character, to be certain, but he really does give me the heebie-jeebies. I hope I got his demeanor right in this chapter. Review and tell me what you think!
Speaking of reviews, thanks to KaseyKay10 for reviewing!
Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter.
DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.
Chapter Eleven - Graveyard Shift? The Mad Meister's Crooked Gear, Part 1
"So this is where we find Stein?"
"Seems like it."
"It's creepy."
As Alecto gazed up at the building, she had to agree that "creepy" was certainly the right word for it. Tall and sharp, the building shaped like a hodgepodge of boxes and arrows and boxes had been messily glued together. Dark seams seemed to run across the walls, seams that upon closer inspection were in fact stitches that were sewn into the very stone of the walls. It was truly the house of a madman.
She glanced over at Sid. He was still wrapped in Tsubaki's chains, were were now stemming from the taller girl's long, thin black ponytail. He was the one who had given them this address, and the one who had told them how to get to it, but not before giving them a warning.
She remembered what he'd said about Dr. Stein. "He is one of the most powerful and skilled men I've ever met, and I was never the sort of man to say that about just anyone. However, he is also a madman. He is like me in that the fear of death has no hold on him. He won't hold back."
Alecto didn't see much of a problem with that. After what the six of them had to deal with over the course of the night, she didn't really feel like holding back either.
"He's here," Maka said. Her certainty in the matter didn't faze Alecto; Maka had the relatively unique ability to see souls, and even if she wasn't actively utilizing that ability, she always had a way of sensing when other presences were nearby. Alecto had learned that when Tempus tried to sneak up on Maka and give her a scare one time, only to be on the receiving end of a Maka Chop.
"Let's hurry and finish this guy off, then," Soul said. "I'm ready for these lessons to be over." The weapon cast a sanguine gaze over the building. "Geez, he even put zigzag stitches on his laboratory."
Tempus shuddered. "Yeah, this place is giving the the chills."
Tick tick whirrr tick. Alecto jumped at the sound of a bizarre ticking noise. It wasn't like the clock-like ticking that echoed in her ears when she and Tempus desynchronized their personal time bubble that only the two of them could hear. Rather, it was a more solid, mechanical ticking punctuated by occasional whirring. And judging by Soul's confused look, she wasn't the only one who heard it.
Two two of them glanced down to see a mechanical mouse by Soul's foot. Its carapace held the same patchwork quality as the building, with the same stitching across the face and body. With another whir, it turned and looked up at them with beady eyes. What sort of contraption is that…?
"Interesting architecture," Maka said. "I wonder what kind of guy this Stein is."
In response, the door in front of them swung open with a slow and ominous creak. Inside the building, a faint, indistinguishable noise could be heard.
"Something's coming out of there," Soul warned.
The noise grew louder and louder, making Alecto in preparation to face whatever or whoever was about to come charging out. The noise was beginning to sound a bit familiar the louder and clearer it got. Are those…
...wheels?
A figure sitting on an office chair came wheeling out, only to crash as one of his wheels caught against the threshold of the door and toppled over, spilling them onto the ground unceremoniously.
Uh. Was this the mad and dangerous Dr. Franken Stein that they had been warned about?
The figure got up and dusted their coat off before sitting back in the chair, backwards this time. "Damn it. Still doesn't feel quite right."
Now that he was facing the meisters (even if his chair wasn't), they were able to get a look at this bizarre person who'd come tumbling out of the building. He was a man in about his mid-thirties, though the dull gray of his unkempt hair and the sallow, sickly tone of his skin would have him seem to be far older. He was very tall and very lanky, to the point Alecto was willing to bet that under those clothes he was practically skin and bones. Speaking of his clothes, they held the same patchwork quality as the building and mouse. His shirt seemed to be made of two wildly different types of cloth, and his lab coat looked like it had been cut apart and then messily sewn together just for the heck of it. He wore a pair of round glasses that reflected the dim moonlight, obscuring his eyes.
The man's most prominent feature, however, was the large screw embedded in his head in a way that should have not been possible. It was this screw that the man was turning, and the sound it made was like someone trying to wind up a music box or one of those little walking toys that you got in the kiddie packages at fast food places. The man paused, seemingly satisfied. "Hmm," he said. "Maybe that'll take care of it."
Alecto and Tempus exchanged a bemused glance. What the hell was this guy's deal?
The man… who Alecto presumed to be Dr. Stein… stood up, gripping the back of the chair. "Okay," he said to the band of thoroughly confused youngsters, "I'm gonna try that again." He proceeded to walk back into the building, wheeling the chair behind him.
As he disappeared into the darkness, Soul spoke up. "Um. Shouldn't someone stop him?"
"But… we just met him. Isn't that rude?" Maka asked. She sounded mostly baffled at the whole situation, which was exactly how Alecto felt.
Tempus shook his head. "Yeah, I ain't going anywhere near that hot mess with a ten-foot pole."
"Tempus," Alecto said, "you are a ten foot pole."
"Not true. At my twelve-thirty position, my maximum diameter from spear tip to spear tip is only about four feet."
"I'd like to see what happens next," Black Star said.
"Yeah, so would I," Tsubaki added.
It wasn't as if going to stop Dr. Stein would be all that necessary, anyways. Within a couple seconds, the sound of an office chair rolling across a floor sounded out again. It grew louder and louder, and Alecto was starting to wonder what would happen…
...when Stein came rolling out and hit the threshold again, his chair tipping over ceremoniously and hitting the ground with a crash. In that moment, Alecto could be certain of what everyone there was thinking. Is this guy for real? Alecto herself could think of many words and phrases to describe this bizarre man in front of them (in fact, bizarre was one of those words) but "a legitimate threat" was not one of them.
From his position on the ground, sprawled and disheveled against the pavement, Stein looked up at them. "Was there something you kids needed me for?" he asked.
"Yeah," Soul said, "if you're really Dr. Stein."
"You did this!" Maka exclaimed, pointing a finger at Sid, who was just sort of standing there with an odd look on his face. "You're the one who turned Sid into a zombie!"
"Oh," Dr. Stein said as he got up, righted the chair, and sat right back down. He sounded bored, as if he'd expected something more interesting than a sextet of annoyed teenagers dragging a blue zombie to his house. "So that's it. I'm guessing you guys are all students from the Academy, then."
"Why did you do this?" Maka asked. "Revenge? A grudge?"
"No, no, nothing like that," Stein said. "I have a simpler motive. Experimentation and observation, that's all a true scientist cares about. And," he added matter-of-factly, his spectacles shining in the moonlight, "I am a scientist. Everything in the world is an experimental test subject. Of course, that includes myself, as well."
He said this all with an even, mildly interested tone, as if he were explaining that the sky was blue or that clouds were made out of water vapor.
Maka's expression didn't change at the doctor's words, but after a few seconds she suddenly looked surprised. She whispered something to Soul, something that Alecto couldn't catch.
"Huh?" Soul said. "Like what?"
Stein spoke again, in the same flat tone. "Your souls' wavelengths aren't very stable."
What? Alecto took a step back. Was he… looking at Maka and Soul's souls? Could he see them, like Maka could?
Could he see hers?
"What's more," Stein continued, "they're quite different from one another. I see one soul that is careless and arrogant, and one that is earnest and strong-willed. They appear to be in resonance, but they aren't."
"What the hell? You mean you can see the soul of someone who's still alive?" Soul asked. "In that case, you must be a meister."
Alecto felt a wave of uneasiness wash over her at that statement. Defeating a mad scientist was one thing, but defeating a mad scientist who had the skills of a meister was another thing entirely. Even with the six of them, it had taken a lot of skill to defeat Sid, and he wasn't able to look at someone's soul and figure them out like this man apparently could.
"He was able to read the character of the souls, too. Only the best meisters can do that," Maka pointed out. Stein grinned at that statement. Alecto couldn't tell if it was an arrogant or prideful grin or a modest grin or an impressed grin or what. It was… just a grin.
"So what? Maka," Soul said, "you can see souls clearly like that too, right?" He turned to look at his meister.
"Oh. Well, of course I can." Maka seemed to react oddly to Soul's question, though alecto couldn't figure her reaction out for sure.
"Your soul seems confused by that last statement," Stein remarked. "How cute."
"Shut up!" Maka said, covering her chest with her arms as if that would hide her soul. "Quit it! Stop looking at my soul, you creep!"
"Yeah, shut up, little doctor-man!" Black Star spoke, but he was no longer standing by Tsubaki like he had been half a minute ago. Instead, he was perched on the flat stone roof of the building, his arms crossed over his puffed-out chest. "No one wants to hear you talk anymore!" Black Star shouted from his position on the rooftop. "Ya-hoo! How about we change the subject to a more interesting conversation topic. Like me, for example!"
"When did he…?" Tsubaki sounded just as confused as Alecto felt. Tempus shrugged.
"Who cares if you can see souls?" Black Star declared. "What does that matter, huh? Not like you're gonna see anything interesting." He leapt down to the ground, landing on his feet with ease. "As far as I'm concerned, the only soul worth looking at is mine."
Stein laughed. "Yours is an interesting one," he agreed, clearly amused by the blue-haired boys antics. "Your soul is extremely self centered and more than a little bit wild." He grabbed the head of the screw in his skull. "It must be rather difficult to find a partner with a soul that's compatible with your own, isn't it?" He turned the screw once, with a sharp whir.
Black Star was clearly pissed by the rather bored tone Dr. Stein had in his voice when talking about the former's soul. "No more talking!" he snapped, and jumped forward, aiming a kick at Dr. Stein's head with the obvious intention of knocking that screw in his brain loose.
Without even looking, Dr. Stein deflected the blow with his forearm, spinning in his chair as his did. Black Star kicked again, and again Dr. Stein just casually blocked it. And then, taking advantage of Black Star's confusion, the doctor struck out with a blow of his own, sliding over to the boy on the office chair and punching him right in the mouth without even a warning.
"Black Star!" Tsubaki cried out.
"Hm?" Stein turned around, looking as if he was noticing her for the first time. "As yes, I see it now," he said, his voice still as infuriatingly unaffected as before. "You must be the wild one's partner. You're always willing to compromise and possess a very accepting nature. It makes sense that you're the one who's able to cooperate with his soul's wavelength."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Alecto exclaimed, stepping forward. "Audīs, bucco! Who told you that you could go looking through people's souls like that, you creep?"
Stein turned his gaze to her. At least, she thought he did; it was hard to tell with his glasses. "Ah. Your soul is very unsure of itself, and for good reason. You pretend that you are strong enough to stand on your own, when in reality you have the weakest soul here."
Alecto froze. "Excuse me?!"
"Hey, wait a minute!" Tempus shouted, placing a hand of Alecto's shoulder. "My meister isn't weak, you son of a bitch!"
"And your soul," Stein continued, speaking to Tempus now, his gaze focused on something deep within the blond boy's heart, "is very cautious and defensive. It also has a very unique wavelength. If I had to guess, I'd say you had a difficult time finding a partner whose wavelengths were compatible with your own."
Taken aback and unnerved probably a little bit frightened, Tempus maneuvered himself so that he was standing behind Alecto, who had rolled her hands into fists. What right did this man have to go prodding about and looking at people's souls? What right did he have to judge them?
What right did he have, calling her weak?
Was he right? He'd been pretty square on the mark with everyone else. What if he was right about her soul being weak?
She could her herself trembling, and forced herself to stiffen her resolve. It doesn't mean anything. Just because you're the weakest here right now doesn't mean you're weak period. You've always known that Maka was a much better meister, and for all his many infuriating qualities Black Star is pretty strong. Just because you're not stronger than them doesn't mean you're not strong.
She wished she could completely convince herself that was the case.
While she was trying to calm her nerves, Soul spoke. "Who do you think you are, old man?" he said angrily.
Stein didn't answer him. "Now that I've collected the necessary initial data from all of you," he said instead, "I think we're ready to begin the experiment."
Nadia stood outside the apartment door, knocking four, five, six times. "Alecto?" she called out, clutching the basket of cookies in her hands even tighter. "Tempus? It's me, Nadia! I brought cookies?"
No answer.
"They're butterscotch"
Nothing.
Nadia let out a weary sigh and leaned against the door, huddling under her jacket for any semblance of warmth. It was cold out tonight, with an icy wind blustering through the streets. After walking for half an hour in a denim jacket that didn't actually do its job as a jacket, Nadia wanted to see her friends.
After that first day, when Nadia had brought over the caramel chip cookies, she hadn't actually been able to talk to Alecto that much. She'd managed to talk to Tempus a couple times, and he'd said that Alecto was doing a lot more meister work. He'd sounded a little concerned about it, but the way Nadia saw it, the more work that meisters did, the safer the streets were.
Even so, it would be nice to talk to Alecto every once in a while.
"You know," Nadia told herself, "I bet she's off doing meister work right now! Maybe she's off saving more people from gross monsters like that Houdini guy, or whatever his name was." The thought cheered her up a bit. "Yeah! She's just off being a hero. She'll be back by the morning, I'm sure of it! Assuming that it's not a Vegas scenario where they're gone for a whole week." She still didn't understand why Tempus and Alecto didn't want to talk about whatever happened and Las Vegas, but hey, it was their business.
"I'll just come see them tomorrow morning, before they go to school!" she decided. "They've got to be home then! I mean, it's Alecto and Tempus. Whatever they're doing, they totally have it in the bag."
"I hope you realize that we're probably screwed."
"We're not!" Alecto shouted, scrambled to her feet, keeping an eye on Stein. The man had barely paid her a second glance as he'd blocked her attacks and knocked her to the side. His focus was instead on Maka, who was charging towards him with Soul in hand.
Stein had no difficulty in avoiding her attacks, never getting up from his chair and with that same lethargic grin on his face the whole time. "You must be scythe meister Maka," he said. Pressing the heels of his feet against Maka's back, he pushed the pigtailed girl away while simultaneously using her as a springboard as the office chair went rolling back, the back of his skull colliding squarely with Black Star's nose ("Ow, my face!")
Tick. "Tempus, six-thirty o'clock, now! We gotta give this guy all we got!" Alecto shouted. As Tempus's spears whirred into position, Alecto ran forward, pulling her arm back and ready to strike with all her strength.
Tock. Stein simply spun to face her, booting her in the stomach and sending her flying backwards a few feet before returning his attention to Maka. "Hm," he said, twisting that damned screw in his head. "Let's see, scythe meister Maka… Something's familiar about that name. If I could just put my finger on it…Ah!" he exclaimed in realization. "Your mother was a meister, and you're Spirit's little daughter, aren't you!"
"Who's Spirit?" Soul asked.
"That's what my father was called before he became a Death Scythe," Maka said, spitting out the word "father" like it was a rotten apple.
Tempus spoke, a little bemused. "Wait, you didn't know that?"
"What, and you did? How?"
"I hear things."
"You mean you eavesdrop, you big gossip," Alecto grumbled at her weapon.
"What I wanna know," Maka said, getting to her feet and glaring at Dr. Stein, "is how you know about that."
Dr. Stein seemed deep in thought, with a smile that looked almost nostalgic stretch across his face. "I can still remember, even now. He looked so peaceful in his sleep. Ahh. So," he said, "You are indeed Spirit's darling little daughter. And the daughter of the woman who ended my greatest experiment." His glasses glinted ominously. "I wonder what kind of subject you'd make."
He pushed himself forward, the wheels of the chair clattering against the pavement as he stretched out his hand. Alecto tensed up, but didn't do anything. Maka could hand herself, and indeed, she managed to block the blow with Soul's handle. Or so they thought.
Stein twisted his hand, and a strange energy seemed to pass between him and the scythe. Somehow, whatever it was was enough to knock Maka back, and the stunned look of pain on Maka's face indicated that whatever just happened, it wasn't pleasant. "What… what did he…"
Stein finally stood up, twisting the screw and pushing the chair idly to the side. "Let's see here. How should I begin my experiment." He held up two fingers and made a snip-snip motion with them, miming a pair of shears.
Alecto was scared for Maka. Whatever this Dr. Stein had done had clearly shaken her, and he didn't seem like the sort who would hesitate to do it again.
Indeed, as Maka lunged forward with an angry cry, Dr. Stein just held his hand out calmly. When Maka struck, there was another flash of energy and light, and Soul were knocked away again. Stein grabbed one of Maka's pigtails, yanking her to her feet and holding her still. He tossed Maka's black longcoat to the side and pulled her shirt up a few inches, revealing her stomach.
"You have lovely skin," he said, "simply lovely." He fumbled around in one of his coat pockets and pulled out a black marker. "Where do you think I should insert the knife first?" He drew two long, perpendicular lines across Maka's belly. "Let's see if I can turn your smooth skin into sandpaper."
Tick. Alecto lunged forward, using the edge of Tempus's buckler to knock the marker away from Stein's hand, She moved to stand behind him and pressed the tip of Tempus's spear between Stein's shoulder blades. Tock. "Iuppiter te perdat if you try," she growled.
Stein didn't look over his shoulder at her, but his voice indicated amusement. "How interesting. You're very quick on your feet."
"In a manner of speaking," Alecto said. "I've also been known to pack a bit of a punch, so it'd be in your best interests to let her go." Bravado was beginning to take over, controlling her actions and her words. She highly doubted that any sort of intimidation tactics she could bust out would work on this piece of human pond scum.
Before she was forced to but her denarii where her mouth was, however, Black Star's voice rang out. "You're about to need a new pair of glasses, bastard!" Alecto turned to see Black Star racing towards them, a dark bruise beginning to form on the side of his mouth where his face and Stein's head had collided. Tick. Realizing that she was between a very angry assassin and his target, she dove out of the way, rolling to the ground and turning to face the unfolding scene. Tock. Black Star continued. "How could you have already forgotten that I'm here?!"
"Easily," Dr. Stein replied disinterestedly.
Black Star leapt forward. "You're not the only one who can use soul waves to attack without a weapon!"
Quid?!
"What?!"
"What?"
"Black Star Big Wave!" With a mighty cry, Black Star struck, slamming his fist into the center of Stein's back. As he did, a wave of dark energy burst out, sweeping the battleground with a power such that Alecto had to brace herself to avoid getting swept back.
Having pulled free of Stein's grip, Maka fell to the ground. Soul had changed back into his human form, and was staring at the scene with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. "Amazing," the alabaster-haired boy said in awe.
Such power… Alecto thought. What the hell kind of attack was that?
Such an attack should have knocked Stein out cold, but to Alecto's horror, the man barely seemed affected at all. "Hm," he said flatly. "A surprise from the wild boy."
"What the hell is this?" Soul demanded. "Everything we've thrown against him is useless!"
Black Star was shocked by this development too, his expression a mask of distressed confusion. "You deflected my soul attack!" he exclaimed.
"Don't you remember how I checked your soul data when you first arrived here?" Stein said. "When I did that, I familiarized myself with your soul's wavelength, so now I can adjust mine so that they match."
"He can do that?" Tempus said.
"When the wavelengths are the same, they cancel each other out, so your attack is powerless," Stein explained. "You see, in the exact moment you attacked, we temporarily bonded. It's liked the connection between a meister and his weapon. That was a fun experiment, but now it's my turn." His smile turned from lethargic to wicked, and he ran straight up to Black Star. Placing his hands on either side of the boy's head, he struck.
Whatever Stein was doing, it was incredibly powerful, and clearly incredibly agonizing for Black Star. The boy's screams of pain echoed through Alecto's ears, and terror gripped her heart. "He's… he's attacking Black Star's soul directly! He's going to rip his soul to shreds!"
"What kind of sick bastard is he?"
Amidst Black Star's screaming, a single horrified voice cried out. "Black Star!" Tsubaki screamed.
"Leave him alone!" Soul shouted.
Stein obliged, ending the attack and letting Black Star's limp form crumple to the ground, blood pooling underneath his head. He wasn't breathing.
Alecto was in shock. Stein had killed him. This sick, deranged doctor had killed Black Star, and he was still smirking about it. Alecto may have disliked Black Star, but she had never wanted to see him dead, especially not in such a horrific manner.
Red filled her vision, and the terror that had taken a python's hold on her heart was replaced with rage. She could hear Tempus's voice, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. "Foedus es," she said, her voice dripping with hatred. "Abi in malam rem!"
Tick. She charged, swinging Tempus with the intention of impaling Dr. Stein's throat. But before she could, time reasserted itself, and Dr. Stein grabbed the minute hand spear as it was inches away from his throat, stopped Alecto dead in her tracks. "Ah, I see," he said. "Temporal desynchronization. I thought that's what it was."
Alecto struggled, but Stein had Tempus in a death grip. "Five seconds," she said, desperately trying to hide the shaking in her voice. "Five seconds for me. For you, it would be the blink of an eye." She raised her voice. "I could kill you in five seconds flat!"
Stein seemed amused by that statement. "Temporal desynchronization is a rare skill," he said. "It's a shame you don't know how to use it properly."
Alecto gritted her teeth. "I can make the laws of personal temporal relativity kneel to the ground and kiss my boots. What the hell makes you think I won't bleed you dry before you even have the chance to take in another breath?"
As if he were stating an irrefutable fact of the world, Stein replied, "Because your soul is weak."
That's when the pain started.
A/N - Oh, Alecto.
Yup, Stein definitely gives me the heebie-jeebies, especially when he was drawing on Maka's belly. Like, dude. Don't go talking about how you think the skin of 14-year-old girls is "lovely," that's some creepy shit. Even knowing what I know, something about him just sends shivers down my spine. I do think he's an interesting character from a writing standpoint, though.
There is a bit to talk about in this chapter. Let's start with Nadia, of course. Oh, Nadia. How little you know. I hoped to convey that Nadia has a bit of hero worship towards Alecto and Tempus since they saved her ass from a serial killer. So she may be overestimating Alecto's skill a little. I also included that scene to remind you all that Alecto is probably a little stressed out from a month of overworking herself. So, beyond Nadia's cameo, what is there to talk about?
We could talk about how Kid had been watching the vast majority of events of the last three chapters and is thus technically more aware of Alecto's existence than Alecto is of his. :3 But there's not actually that much to say on that matter.
We could also talk about Stein's assessment of Alecto and Tempus's souls. But that would be spoilers.
We could talk about how "something more interesting than a sextet of annoyed teenagers dragging a blue zombie to his house" is probably the best string of words I have ever written or ever will write. But that just speaks for itself.
So let's just talk about the Latin.
Audīs, bucco: Audīs is latin for "listen" (second person present tense) while "bucco" means a loud-mouth or a blabber-mouth. So yes, Alecto literally told Dr. Stein "Listen up, blabber-mouth." I love my characters.
Iuppiter te perdat: "Jupiter confound you" or "Jupiter damn you." For those who haven't brushed up on their Roman mythology recently, Jupiter was essentially the equivalent of Zeus in the Roman pantheon, being the god of thunder and the sky. I hear they named a planet after him. :P
Foedus es: "You're disgusting," or "You're abominable," or "You're detestable" or anything along those lines.
Abi in malam rem: Copy-pasting from chapter 9's notes: The relatively literal translation is "Go to the devil!" So Alecto's essentially telling Sid to go right (back) to hell.
Chapter twelve will be up pretty soon. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!
- Diana "Nocte"
