Day Four: Loyalty

Finally, right? By the way, I didn't do all the prompts, so the days are kind of all over the place. Here's some more Gone AU.

The golden hue of the moon outside flooded the otherwise dark room. Soul and Maka lied on the queen sized bed, encased in each other's arms. Her head tucked under Soul's chin, she clenched the fabric of his cotton shirt, terrified of what he would think of her after she confessed what happened all those years ago.

But for shit's sake, she was thirteen back then. Could she really be held accountable for her actions?

Yes, she could. Because she had a brain, and knew that what she was a part of was morally sick and twisted. And she made no move to leave until it benefited her. That doesn't even cover the fact that she lied, betrayed, fled like the coward she was…

There really was no excuse.

Soul had his finger tangled in her wheat colored hair, absentmindedly twirling it, "I guess I'm lucky I didn't get to take the bio test for Stein. Didn't even look at that shit last night."

Maka chuckled, despite the knot twisting and growing in her stomach, "I know, you were bothering me about it all night. You lazy ass, you didn't even glance at the study guide when he handed it out, did you?"

She knew he was smirking at her, she could practically feel it. As much as she didn't want to, she needed to change the subject. She knew that if she didn't talk about this now, she probably would never get the courage to talk about it. She promised she would finally tell him, and she had to do it now.

She was done lying.

She shifted, getting a better look at Soul's face, "So you know I used to live in California, right?" Him nodding was her cue to go on, "And you know that I used to go to a private school with Black*Star and Kid. Um, Soul, that school wasn't necessarily a good place to be."

At his confused look, Maka elaborated, "Honestly, that place was basically a dumping ground for problematic children. You know about my dad's infidelity and my mom's intolerance for it, to the point of her actually packing up and leaving everything. I was proud of her for finally taking initiative, and I love her even more for it, but… God, I was so angry at everyone. I would lash out at my dad, would blame him for forcing my mama away, would blame him for not being able to hold a relationship, hell, I blamed him for burning the damn toast. I even blamed my mama for leaving me behind. He just couldn't really take care of me, or didn't know how to take care of me anymore, because I wouldn't listen to him. So he thought that the best place for me was at the… the academy.

"When I met Black*Star, he kind of took me under his wing, took care of me. He was there longer than I was and knew how the place worked. He warned me to stay away from the higher grades because they were apparently really bad news and would make my life miserable. It pissed me off that he would joke that a shrimpy girl like me wouldn't be able to handle people like them. But I listened to him, because they did freak me out. And if Black*Star of all people warned me to stay away, I would. But when everyone disappeared, I really had no choice but to join up with them. It turned into absolute chaos when all of the delinquents realized that they could do whatever they wanted. They promised to protect me if I promised to help them with whatever they needed me to do. Black*Star stayed with me too, I'm pretty sure because he wanted the food they had, but also because he didn't trust them with me."

It took a few seconds for Soul to process all of this. He kissed Maka's temple to assure her that he was still listening, that he was still there for her.

Maka inhaled shakily. She didn't want to continue, but she knew she had too, "We were never really a part of their 'meetings' but Black*Star and I would listen in on some of their conversations. It shocked us on what we heard. Apparently, the boss developed these… Shit, I sound insane saying this, but he developed these powers that gave him the ability to control things with his mind. I couldn't believe it, because, I mean, that's ridiculous! There's no way he was telling the truth! But… then we saw him… Someone pissed him off and he—he did something, I don't know what, and threw the other kid against the wall. I can still hear the crack of the kid's spine, breaking…"

Soul tightened his grip on her, "Maka you don't have to tell me if it bothers you—!"

"Yes, I do, because I want you to know. If the FAYZ is happening again, I want you to know how bad it might get."

Maka couldn't look at him in the face, wouldn't look at him in the face. The moment she saw that poor kid die because of another kid's temper, she should have run. She should have taken Black*Star, grabbed her things, and bolted in the other direction.

But she didn't, and because of that, she had to endure the tyranny and downright cruelty that she could've avoided.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Her throat felt like it was closing up, like she ate spoonful after spoonful of creamy peanut butter. She didn't want to, God she didn't want to, but she continued, "I mean, I guess if we hadn't stayed, we wouldn't have met Kid. He was toward the outside of the group like us because of him being the principal's son, so we kind of bonded. No one really liked him and no one really liked us.

"We all talked and argued about what we should do, but we were young and clueless. I was thirteen, and they were both fourteen, so we didn't have any idea on how to survive out on our own. But the leaders of our little society were growing more ruthless and violent, and it was only a matter of time before Black*Star snapped and caused a fight. We all decided to take our chances in the wilderness. Maybe we would make it to the town that was a couple of miles down the road."

Maka rambled on, explaining that they did in fact make it to the town, but they were slightly better than the school. They decided to blend in, to try not to attract any attention, tried to pretend that they were there all along. As time went on, Maka came to the gut wrenching realization that she could somehow predict where a person would be without looking, and eventually she could sense their emotions. Black*Star found out he could somehow control the electrical impulses in his body and manipulate it to shock other people. Kid could blend into the shadows, which fit because he practically looked like death's son with how pale he was.

This might as well have been a death wish, and they had to take extra care in hiding the abilities because the people who didn't have any powers at all took it upon themselves to take justice into their own hands. People with mutant powers were dangerous and they had to be dealt with accordingly.

Really, all the vigilantes did was terrorize the people with mutated abilities with more and more violence. They were no better than the kids at the academy. It got to the point where they realized they would have to resort to violence to protect themselves. How disturbingly petrifying is it to have to rely on a baseball bat and a fourteen year old boy with volatile powers for protection?

Maka didn't understand what they could do. No one did. They didn't know how to control it and they heard rumors that a kid died because of a supernatural ability. They were scared. No, they were terrified. The kid who accidently murdered another kid was given the death penalty in a mock trial and was nearly killed himself, only to apparently escape with severe trauma to the head.

These were all just rumors, of course. None of was true, a girl told them. Just rumors. It was easier to believe that was all it was.

The more Maka explained what happened to her, the more her hands shook, but she kept her composure. She had too. She wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and sob her eyes out, but she had to keep talking. Soul had to know.

She talked about how she, Black*Star, and Kid ran when the small town she was living in caught on fire, and did not look back, did not look back to see the scorched bodies, to hear the blood curdling screams of dying children. She talked about how she tried to make a deal with the devil when she found herself caught between a rock and a hard place (she managed to talk herself out of that one. Some douche bag thought it was necessary to blackmail her into giving him all of the food she had in exchange for her power to be kept a secret. If anyone found out, she would be dead instantly. Luckily for her, all she had was a packet of Cheezits, so she gave him that and dashed away).

She talked about how she was nearly killed by an insane witch who thought it was hilarious to make her see snakes slithering up her legs, constricting her body so that she could not breathe. To make her see thousands upon thousands of little needles piercing her skin, penetrating the flesh so it was like she was a puppet being controlled by the puppeteer. She talked about how she sprinted in the other direction when she heard the deafening cries of other children because she absolutely knew that the witch was there and there was no way in the fiery depths of hell that she was going to be put through that torture ever again.

By this time, tears were streaming down her cheeks because she was so, so ashamed that she was such a coward, that she couldn't muster up the courage to at least save one kid's life when she could have. Every little thing she went through, Soul knew about, and by the time she was done with her confession, he was holding her tighter than he was before, murmuring sweet nothings in her ear. Telling her that everything was okay, and that was the past. There was no need to dwell on the past.

Her face was buried in the crook of Soul's neck, Maka incoherently sobbing that he should hate her, that she could have done something back then and she didn't. She could have done something and she didn't. Why didn't he hate her?

All he did was hold her tighter, and whisper to her that he didn't hate her, he could never hate her, and she was different now. Now was all that mattered. She was the bravest person Soul knew and what happened when she was thirteen didn't matter now. He would never leave her. He would stay with her through thick and thin.

He littered her face with soft kisses that he didn't dare do in public, and continued to reassure her that things would be different now. He firmly kissed her chapped lips, desperate to make her understand that he would never leave her, desperate to make her tears go away. He would make sure that nothing happened to her. He would make sure that she would never go through that hell ever again. He would protect her no matter what.