Note: I'm going to post this now, It didn't come out quite as well as the others, and I know its been a long time but im trying to dedicate myself to the quality of the story, so their going to take a long time to produce. Hope you guys enjoy. Dan-
(the palace of the grand witch)
Eruka hummed a tune (the frogger theme) as she dug in Medusa's refrigerator for her hidden delicious foods. She was a younger witch perhaps eighteen at the most, she hadn't reached her age peek like Medusa, she had long fine straight hair, her lips were thin with peculiar black dimples on either side of her lips, she usually wore black and white dresses, most of the time with polka-dot apparel and accessorys, stockings and the like. She wore the stereotypical pointed witch hat, her own a florescent orange color. It was well after midnight, having a social life was a lot more draining than she remembered, after a day out stirring up trouble with her witch friends she was ready for a late night snack and then it was off to bed. She had to admit, with Medusa gone food supply's were getting low, she was a nasty dreadful woman at times but at least she kept a full fridge like a boss. She tried not to think those worrisome thoughts in the back of her head, that she actually missed the woman, that she wanted her sadistic mentor back. "nope, shes out of your life, stop thinking about it, shes not coming back, shes dead, dead and gone forever." she tried to keep humming but she lost the tune, she assembled her bologna sandwich and added mustard. "hmmm cheese.." someone handed a slice of processed cheese to her over her shoulder. "oh thanks..." she started unwrapping the cheese from its translucent package. Her eyes shot open wide and turned to see Medusa's mincing silhouette in the darkness, she screamed loud enough to wake the entire palace. A hand forcefully covered her mouth. Medusa pressed herself against her up to the wall. "shhhh, shush, shut up." Medusa hissed. Her reptilian eyes narrowing, she could feel Eruka's heartbeat through her hand, smell her fear. Medusa was a woman with blond short hair, arrows were painted on her fingernails. She looked to be in her twenty's but she is actually over a hundred years old. Her features were sharp and narrow, those who lived long enogh to describe her appropriately Usually say the same thing, wicked sexy, pant shittingly terrifying and deadly as a ninety megaton nuclear bomb. Medusa removed her hand from her mouth. "helping yourself to my food? Now I see just how far your loyalty runs. Do you think bologna grows on trees? No, I have to buy it." "I- I'm sorry!." Medusa released her, a scowl carved deep into her face "you better have fed my snakes." "i did..." that was a lie, she hated feeding Medusa's pets, she hadn't gone in the reptile room sense she died. "I thought you were dead Medusa sama." Eruka finished the sandwich and offered it to Medusa whom refused it. "I'm sure you were overjoyed." Medusa narrowed her eyes at Eruka. "and so was the grand witch I'm sure." "what do you mean?" Medusa leaned against her kitchen counter. "you knew what was supposed to happen as well I did, I know your a generally distracted chilled but even you should have known things didn't happen according to plan. Now my dear Franken got a little confused and decided to murder me, but from what I hear the kishen was released, he did a good job to, killed off plenty of the swine. The grand witch was supposed to send reinforcements upon awakening of the kishen. Those, I have on good authority, didn't actually show up." Eruka seemed skeptical, but if anyone knew such a thing it was Medusa. "who told you? How did you know they didn't show up if..you were dead?" "free told me, after I tracked him down. It was easy to lure him in with my disguise." "I'm sorry Medusa sama but you have to catch me up.." Medusa waved her over to the kitchen table, she noted the thick layer of dust. She sighed "i knew I couldn't trust you to keep a house. Kids today." she shooke her head with disapointment "i tried but this castle is so dusty..it just got away from me." "im sure.." Medusa looked unconvinced. "i was dead, my body was destroyed anyway. But as you know the most powerful witches are capable of contentious thought beyond death, I was able to seal my soul away, steel the body of a snake hiding in the tunnels. I escaped while the city burned. I found a body that would work, a little girl, but I needed something stronger, I found one, she needed a little work but you can see for yourself there's nothing out of place after a few spells." Eruka nodded. "you look even better than before." she said in an attempt at flattery, it worked, Medusa smiled. "yes well, people like me are why our species still exist, if inferiors could kill us so simply we would have gone the way of the dinosaurs and movie rental shops." she turned away. "however it would seem that our dear leader is becoming less deserving of her position, she sailed us down the river. She doesn't even know I'm back, she was in bed and none of her servants wanted to wake her with the news that her second in command is still alive." she looked down at the floor where some of Crona's old robes still sat in a laundry basket. Her expression was blank. "i haven't seen her, I think shes dead." Eruka said lowly. "no, not dead." "shes not? They captured her then." Medusa turned to her. "never you mind, Crona is right where I want her." She leaned back in her seat. "she couldn't be in a better place actually.."
(The next morning, Doctor Stien's laboratory )
spirit awoke, his body was numb and he couldn't move at all, something obscured his already hazy view. There was very little light for him to see. He tried to crawl but something heavy kept him down. He strained even harder, finally he budged, he crawled toward the light until he was free. He looked around in confusion, he was in Stien's house, it was dawn, the sun was just now peeking its way through the blinds, the light was like a hot bolt of plasma right to his eyes. He sat with fingers pressed into his eye sockets grimacing at the sharp pain, finally it subsided enough that he could move. In the night the reclining chair toppled over and on top of him, odd sense he had slept so comfortably. Stien was still asleep, he was just a heap of white hair sticking out of a lab coat. Spirit stumbled to his feet, still a little drunk but massively hung over. He propped himself against the wall and meandered along the wall to the hallway. He nearly lost his footing in the hall but made it to the kitchen where he began searching for something. "uuuh the pressuuure.. my head feels like its going to explode." he found what he was looking for, a raw egg, and a pepper shaker, he couldn't find any vodka so he snatched the last unopened beer. Her pored in a tiny bit of the beer into the glass and added the raw egg and garnished the whole shibang with a dash of pepper. It was just like he remembered it, back from when he was a young man, the "prairie oyster" as it was called was the preferred method of vanquishing a hangover in Death City, nearly everyone over thirty had leaned the brew in their youth. He healed his nose and tossed it back. He slammed the cup down and gagged, he could feel last nights pizza playing Enemy At the Gates with his esophagus. "that's gunna need a chaser." in the fridge he found that off brand orange soda that only he and Stien enjoy, "orange MAX! oranges are vitamins!" it flamboyantly proclaimed on the front of the can. He shuffled back to the living room. He pulled Stien up and shoved him to the other side of the couch and sat down, he gingerly drank his beverage. After a while Stien began to rouse from sleep. "please be in my own house...pleas be in my own house.." he mumbled to himself. He opened his eyes and looked around the room and was relieved to find he hadn't decided to go on a drunken wander about the town. He rolled his head to the side and he eyes slowly slid over to spirit. "do we have to work today?" he asked with a dry hung over voice. Spirit shook his head "no its Friday." Stien closed his eyes and sighed "oh, thank god.." they sat in silence for ten minutes. Then suddenly his eyes fluttered open. "the girls came home didn't they?" spirit looked to the corner thinking back to the night before but it was all a blur. "I..think so." "well, surely they did." he pointed "unless you turned off the TV. You were out before I was.." "wasn't me." spirit shrugged. "ill go check in a minute." he said. "don't wake them up on their day off, they've been working hard lately." "ill be quiet, they wont even know I was there." Stien nodded. "alright. I'm going to make some coffee." spirit rose to his feet and walked into the hall. As Stien also stood the doorbell rang. "who could it be now.." he went to the hall and turned to the door. He looked though the peep hole and saw Sid staring back at him. Without hesitation Stien opened the door. Sid was a mountain of a man, if we're honest he looked more like a Boxer than an assassin. A veteran of operation dessert storm, Sid is a skilled knife fighter and expectational sharp shooter. Did I mention hes a zombie? Because he's zombie. Well he doesn't like that term, he prefers Undead. Before he died he was half black. After stien brought him back to life there was a purple hue to his skin, his eyes were completely white like his superbly clean and rather large chompers that could flatten an iron brick. Recently Sid was reassigned at the DWMA and has been the new physical education teacher for the "NOT" class, however he still often runs reconnaissance and the odd assassination for Lord Death when such is needed. Sid's nearly nonexistent nose twitched as Stien opened the door, his face wavered with sensory overload. "did you sleep in a brewery last night?" he asked. Stien looked at him peculiarly for a moment then remembered the night before. "oh, yeah me and spirit tied one on last night." "oh." Sid nodded "so your doing alright?" "yeah I'm alright. Whats up?" Sid put his hands behind his back, instinctively standing at parade rest, at times this made him look sort of silly. "came to see how you were. I had heard you were having a rough week and I wanted to see for myself. But I'm glad your okay." "thanks for your concern." suddenly they heard a scream from somewhere deep in Stien's house. Sid tried to look past Stien but he couldn't see past the dark hallway. "is everything okay?" Stien looked back at him. "huh? Oh, yeah I'm sure everything's alright." Sid was obviously suspicious. "your not experimenting on Spirit are you?" Stien shook his head, "no, nothing like that. Crona probably just startled him, you know spirit frightens easily" Sid hesitantly nodded. "yeah, alright..so while I got you hear I'm going to share some news. Maybe I shouldn't tell you, but I know it would be important to you." Stien gave him his full attention. "Medusa is alive." he said lowly with no shortage of asperity in his voice. stein's expression flattened. "she was spotted somewhere near Las Vegas three days ago, she stole a car. She got in a chase with police, where..." he paused to find the words in his head. "..well they said the car took off." "It what?" behind Stien, spirit walked past into the kitchen, he looked very pail, as if he had seen a ghost. "It Flew, One of the cops said that the car Began to levitate at eighty eight miles an hour and it flew away." "Holly shit." Sid nodded "indeed. If she could do something like that after returning from the dead on her own then it shows just how powerful shes become." Stien crossed his Arms and put a hand to his chin. "That is troubling." "I'm going to infiltrate the castle again, I'm going to do some snooping and see if I can cause some trouble." he said lowly.
(five minutes ago) spirit descended the staircase to the basement door, it was unlocked. He put his hand on the large handle and the tumbles clunked into place. He pushed the heavy metal door open. It was dark, only the black and white television lit his path. The room was vacant, only a bag of potato chips sat on the comfy looking couch. Things like this scared him, Particularly, Crona scared him, he tried not to think back to that night when they found her in the ruins under the DWMA. Stien was completely covered in her mothers blood, that look of horror, that utterly crushed look of inconsolable grief, it burned him. Then that demon Ragnarok, how it cursed at them and raved, then what Stien did next, the unspeakably terrifying power he showed when he ripped the beast asunder and rendered him into a sizzling pile of demonic flesh, with only one hand he ripped the demon from Crona's body like a leach off a hogs ass. He shook the memory's away, as long as he ignored them they couldn't hurt him. Where were they? He looked around for any other rooms. There was the side room, its door was normal and could be opened without a key. He had never been down there but he could gather that, that was Crona's bedroom. Without so much as a thought he strolled up to the door and opened it and looked in. He froze as the scene before him was pieced together in his brain. In an instant his blood pressure skyrocketed, his heart nearly exploded. Spirit stumbled backward baffled at what he was seeing. He screamed in horror, dear Yog Sothoth it couldn't be real. "papa!" he heard his daughters voice from the dark room "w-wait!" he turned on his heals and started quickly up the stairs, he was out of the room just before Maka stumbled out of Crona's bedroom wrapped in Crona's bed sheets, her clothes wrinkled and her hair a mess. Crona shuffled out behind her "what going on?" she was shaking. Maka turned to her with a serious look on her face. "he saw us."
(back to the present)
Stien finished talking to Sid and they parted ways. Stien walked back through the west hallway and into the kitchen where spirit sat at the table hugging his body close to himself in a similar fashion as Crona tends. His eyes and face stretched long with horror. Stien walked past him as if he didn't even notice. He began to fiddle with his coffee machine. Spirit made a sobbing noise that caught Stien's attention. "something wrong?" he turned to spirit who had large streams of tears running down his face. "m-m-maka.." Stien turned back to his coffee machine "yes. What about Maka?" "a-and c-crona." Stien violently whacked his coffee machine with a pipe wrench a few times, he made a satisfied hum as the machine beguine his brew. "hmm. What about Maka and Crona?" "Their..Their! Ghuuhuhuh!" he began sobbing like a child. "Ah yes Maka and Crona in THAT way. Yes I have become aware of this. All of my hypothesis about the two of them were correct." Spirit was completely inconsolable. Stien saw Maka staring worried into the kitchen Crona was in toe clasping Maka's hand, Stien smiled and waved at the two, they exchanged glances and went back to the basement "I just cant believe it, I thought a father was supposed to know these kinds of things." he looked at Stien with his head down with pitiful eyes. "Nonsense, I only managed to come to a conclusion threw wiled speculation. But now that I know the truth it has become easier for me to believe. Its even very likely that it would happen that way. Iv just been observing this whole time. They may have never known that I knew their secret, Oh how lovely the scientific pursuit." "Why dose this entertain you?!" spirit tried to sound tough but he failed catching another sob in his throat and he collapsed back into a pile, Stine pored two cups of coffee and set one in front of Spirit "Really that's quite enough from you now. Maka is your daughter right?" spirit looked up at Stien "yes.." Stien sipped his coffee "And you love your daughter more than anything. I know that about you Spirit" Stien took a seat and crossed his legs. Spirit nodded "then it shouldn't be so troublesome to you. However i understand your initial shock" spirit sobbed one more time rubbing his eyes "Maaakaaaa..." "And yes I did find it amusing"
(meanwhile)
Crona sat on the couch watching Maka paced about. Her dad seeing them together seemed to be causing her a lot of anxiety, but why?. "this..this isn't good at all..." she said lowly. She was starting to make Crona nervous as well. She didn't see the big deal truth be told. The night before Maka had asked her if she would like if the slept in the same bed, Crona had no reservations on doing this what so ever though she had to admit the idea sounded a bit strange at first. After they got settled in Crona couldn't complain it was nice really, having he person she cared about next to her at night, she wondered if that was something normal people did. She couldn't help but think, what if Maka's father was angry with them? Would he try an break them apart. Her heart stopped beating just thinking about that, she couldn't breath. Tears formed in her eyes. Maka looked over at her, she unclenched her fist and sat next to her. "Crona don't cry.." Crona trembled with anxiety "Maka, w-what if he tells us we cant be together? I-I like being with you, I couldn't deal with us being apart, I just couldn't." Maka put a hand on her should. "its going to be okay, its just embarrassing for all of us...he wasn't supposed to find out this way, he's just shocked is all. My dad may be a bit dim but he loves me and he knows that you mean a lot to me. even if he was mad he wouldn't try and separate us, he knows that would break my heart and he couldn't deal with that..he already did that once so hes on thin ice.." after a moment they heard a knock on the door. Maka knew who it was. "come in." she said. Her father entered the room. They were all silent for a few moments, Maka was the first to speak "I'm sorry you saw what you did." spirit's already soft expression turned to a frown. "That was my fault. I shouldn't barge in like some asshole. I'm sorry for that." Maka nodded "its okay." "I didn't know about you two, didn't know all this was going on." he said "but really there's not allot for me to be mad about." He looked over at Crona with a bit of murk "but who's idea was that anyway?" Crona fidgeted. "w-well..i-i it..uhm." Maka stood close by Crona "dad, be nice. It was my idea. Crona means a lot to me and were in a point in our relationship where I thought it might be a good idea to try it out." spirit seemed slightly enlightened. "you understand that your both young and as your father it makes me a little uncomfortable that you two are that close." he sighed "but I cant stop it can I?" he looked over at Crona again, he straightened his back. "if you were just some punk like her Soul Eater I would throttle you..but I know that your a good kid." he cleared his throat and looked the other way. "but stay out of bed with my daughter for another year or so." Maka put her hands on her hip "hay what gives you the righ-" he interrupted her "because I'm still your father." he said sternly "i love you Maka, and your growing up fast. But I don't want your ghoul friend there to be the reason you grew you to fast." Maka didn't know what to say. "if you'll excuse me I got some business with stien to take care of." Maka nodded to her father. Crona garbed Maka's hand for comfort. He looked back over his shoulder. "don't want you two to get the wrong idea. I'm supporting you, your still my daughter and I love you ,so don't let this ruin your day." he exited the room.
Stien had secretly been watching the whole time. He had a small laugh as spirit came up the stairs "look at you mr. progressive father. Took that one like a champ." spirit pushed past him with a sneer on his face. "yeah, whatever. Your daughter still gives me the creeps.