This World of Darkness

*Do not own Soul Eater or any of its characters. Just a huge fan.

Chapter 17: The Final Strike pt 1

*In Arachne's bedroom...

Arachne wanted desperately to know what was going on outside. She had tried contacting Mosquito, Giriko, and Eibon, but none of them ever answered her. Dammit! she thought as she bit done on her thumb in worry. She looked down and observed the demon god that lied asleep in her arms. She knew that if all else failed, she would still have him, but this was becoming ridiculous!

Without any of her subordinates to contact, she had no lead as to what went on beyond the walls of her chamber. She could always stand up and look out a window or even call for a random soldier, but she did not want to break herself from this; she feared that if she removed herself from Asura, then it may cause a negative reaction. Perhaps she was worrying to much...but it was a risk that she DID NOT want to take.

She looked down at Asura and made a scowl. Not at him but at the thought of everything around them. "Medusa." she spat. "My dear sister..." her eyes continued to narrow in anger. "You are the one who has been plotting and planning this whole time...but now it's MY turn to strike back."

She ran her long fingers through Asura's hair. Her anger fell and was replaced with a lazy yet madness-filled smile. "The instant anything happens...I will unleash my ace, and you will all cease to exist."

She looked at Asura one more time before smiling again; this time her smile was genuine. It did not show worry, although she still felt uneasy. To say that she was completely sure that everything would go her way was a lie. It was foolish to assume victory before the two sides had even set there strongest pieces yet. But Arachne still smiled, for she had confidence, and it was enough to let her wait...until she could launch her final strike...

*Outside...

Stein and Medusa's team had finally arrived at the point that they needed to be. It was a tall cliff side that contrasted itself from the trees behind it; standing at it's tip gave the meisters and witch a complete view of Baba Yaga castle, and the on-going war that surrounded it.

As Medusa's eyes met with the giant stone spider that was her sister's castle, she could not help but let out a sigh. She knew from the beginning that they would most likely kill Arachne in the process of all this and Medusa was fine with that, but now that it was actually all about to happen right in front of her, she could not help but reflect on her past. The past of her and Arachne hundreds of years ago. But was she going to let any of that get to her now? No. They had hated each other for so long and Medusa tried to tell herself that this was happening...

Crona noticed the strange look on her mother's face. It wasn't one that she was used to seeing from Medusa, even from before. It was a face that somehow showed concern and at the same time satisfaction. This expression was something that Crona did not understand, so it was understandable that she would question her mother. "M-mother...?" she asked softly.

Medusa's eyes rolled to the corner of her vision and saw the confused look on her child's face. "What is it Crona?" her face stayed the same but her voice showed true curiosity and genuine compassion, something that slightly brought Crona away from her own timidness.

"Um...I was just..." she rubbed her knees together. She couldn't help but still feel a little nervous talking to her mother so casually. "It just looked like something was bothering you..." she finally said.

Medusa finally took her attention away from the spider castle and gave Crona a somewhat comforting smile. "Oh it's nothing. I was just trying to let it all sink in that this war is actually about to be over."

"Well hopefully over..." Stein said walking up behind Medusa.

Medusa turned to him. "What's the status on everything?"

"Well we have to wait on Sid to meet up here with us and once he has, all we need to do is wait for lord death to give the signal."

Medusa nodded. She looked behind him and saw the meisters and weapons were anxiously anticipating the time to attack. Liz, Patty, and Soul had reverted to human form and took this as a chance to stretch their legs.

Medusa made a slight frown. She looked at Stein with a serious expression. "Now just in case this thing doesn't kill the Kishin, which I'm sure it won't entirely, we ARE prepared to fight him, RIGHT?"

Stein turned and looked at his students who simply looked back at him, some of them giving him faint nods to show that they were completely prepared to fight harder than ever before. Stein looked back at Medusa frowning at first but then gave a confident smile. "You don't have to worry about that. These student's have been training for this kind of fight."

Medusa stared at him. She didn't exactly show signs that she was not convinced by his words, but he could feel a trifle of disbelief in her eyes. "Besides..." he began. "in the time it has taken us to get up here, Lord Death had another team of meisters with another death scythe meet at another location not too far from us."

Medusa arched a brow in confusion to what he just said. Even Marie and the students behind him seemed a little confused when they heard that. "Wait a minute, Stein..." Marie stepped forward. "Not that that's a bad thing but you never told us that when we planned this."

"Yeah..." said Maka still confused. "Who are the others?"

Stein turned to them and took a puff from a cigarette he had in his mouth. "It's the other top meisters that we had in your class under my teachings. Kilik, Ox, Kim and their weapons."

At first the others looked a little puzzled but they could understand that choice, they were still just a little confused as to why Stein would wait so long to tell them this, which is what soul ended up asking. "But why did you wait until now to tell us that? It would have been nice to know that we had back up somewhere."

"And who is the death scythe that was paired with them?" Kid asked adding on to Soul's question.

"Is it Azusa?" Marie asked looking at Stein.

Stein shook his head. "No, the death scythe that was assigned to them was supposed to be Justin, but we have had no luck in contacting him, so we switched the role to someone else."

"Wait, What's wrong with Justin?" Marie asked with concern, the others also showing concern behind her hoping that their comrade was not dead.

"The priest...?" Medusa thought to herself. An uneasy feeling washed over her.

Stein continued. "We're not sure what's happened to him yet but we are sure he's not dead." this got some sighs of relief from the others. "I talked to Sid earlier and he told me that he was barely able to get away from that enchanted chainsaw that is one of the witch, Arachne's, generals."

Maka, Soul, and Crona's eyes widened a little. Since they had actually fought that exact weapon before, they knew just how strong he was. "Is Sid okay?" Maka asked immediately.

Stein nodded. "Yes. He was injured but from what he told me, some of our soldiers found him and are helping him get here as we speak." he took another puff from his cigarette. "Now listen..." his tone became firm and his eyes serious. "The next few things I'm about to say I would like to get all out in one sentence with no interruptions." this caused the others to give him weary looks. "I'm sorry but time is of the essence and I need to say all this while I can." they all nodded giving him a sign to continue. "When I spoke with Sid, he told me that the enemy had mentioned fighting Justin before finding Sid but at the same time, he also told Sid that he was not able to finish his fight with Justin."

Everyone started to look at him confused but they knew they were not to interrupt, so they waited for him to continue. "From what the enemy told him, it sounded as if Justin had up and left without much of a reason and where he may have gone, I don't know. We have a search team looking for him now. And to answer the earlier question, the death scythe accompanying the other team is a weapon named Tezca Tlipoca."

The others had never heard of him, he must have been a death scythe that had not shown himself at the academy. But Marie knew, and she could not help but cringe at the thought of that "weirdo" being so close to them right now.

Stein raised a hand. "Any questions?" he asked.

You'd think that they would, but the miesters and weapons shook their heads to let Stein know that they understood.

"Good." Stein said in response to their understanding and after a minute, he smiled faintly.

Medusa had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Justin Law... hearing that name filled her with grief. During her time in Rachel's body, the snake witch could sense an impressive amount of madness the night she left Death City. And she knew who held that torrent of madness. Of course it was the one person they would never suspect (LOL: remember in the manga when death said Justin would be the least likely to go insane :D). Medusa frowned, she wanted to tell them what she was thinking but decided not to. For it would only weigh down on them and keep them unfocused when the time came to fight. She would tell them...but it had to wait...

She tried to focus her mind on something else when she suddenly realized something. "Oh, by the way..." she began, trying to get everyone's attention. "I forgot to say this, but if you remember the other two witches and the wolfman that had helped me in the past, I've called to have them meet us here as well."

They all instantly remembered the three that helped Medusa free the Kishin on that fateful night. "Wait..." Maka began. "They're coming? Do they know what's going on?"

Medusa nodded. "I informed one of the two witches quite some time ago that the plans had changed."

Kid stepped forward. "And they were that quick to turn and drop whatever you were having them do?"

Medusa nodded again. Kid looked at her a little oddly but then he simply nodded back. Being a grim reaper, he possessed the ability assume a person's traits just by looking at their soul. The time he fought the wolfman, he could sense that while Free was loyal to Medusa, he did not necessarily care for the destruction of all life like she did, only shared a mutual hate for law and order.

Everyone now began to wait. Wait for the signal that would change the course of the whole battle.

*A few minutes later...

Sid had already arrived and discussed with Stein what was going to happen. With him, he of course brought Naigus, but he also had with him a small battalion of soldiers.

Sid told Stein that they still had no luck in locating Justin, which only caused Medusa to turn away with a nervous scowl. But right now she was still waiting for the other three to arrive.

Conveniently, as she finished that thought, she could feel there souls approaching. She couldn't help but make a faint smile when she saw the three heading towards them. "Lady Medusa!" Eruka called out just in case they weren't seen.

Of course Medusa saw them coming but this also attracted the attention of everyone else. Once the two witches and the wolfman arrived on the spot, there was a small feeling of awkwardness between the two sides. Eruka, Free, and Mizune just stared at the members of the DWMA who stared back.

Um, Lady Medusa...?" Eruka whispered to the snake witch. "What's going on?"

"You didn't get captured or something, did ya?" Free asked calmly, turning his head to Medusa.

Medusa sighed realizing that she STILL had not informed the three of everything that was going on. "Okay, calm down and let me explain. First off, Eruka, I already told you that I was helping the DWMA."

"Yeah, but you never told me why..."

"I will if you stop interrupting me." Medusa said a little coldly.

"Yes ma'am..." Eruka said taking the hint to shut up.

"Okay..." Medusa took a deep breath. "I'm not going to tell you EXACTLY why I'm helping them right now, I'm just gonna say that the table has turned and we're going against the Kishin now. Once he's out of the way, you three are basically free to go. AND BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING..." Medusa exclaimed the last few words anticipating that they would interrupt. "I REALLY don't feel like discussing why this is how things have turned out...okay?"

The three just looked at each other oddly. Of course this was very hard for them to take in and just accept it but the look on Medusa's face showed that she was not in a mood to be questioned right now; so they all nodded they're heads in understanding.

"Good." Medusa said, now smiling

*A few minutes later...

At this point, everyone was just sitting and waiting for the signal. Medusa was taking the time to explain to to Eruka and the others just what the reason for her change of heart was. They were really shocked by the answer, for they could never see the Medusa they knew becoming so good. As a joke, she made a frightening face and said "But only while Stein is around!" just to still invoke the thought that she hadn't changed completely, she was just on the opposing side now, just like Stein.

While they waited, Kid got up and walked over to sit down with Crona. "Crona...?" he asked.

She had been sitting with her arms around her legs and her face in her knees. So when she heard her name, she brought her head up to see Kid. "Um..yes, Kid?"

"I was just wondering...do you feel like you can involve yourself in this fight?" he asked showing concern.

She thought about the question and looked away a bit. "Well..I...um...I admit that I'm a little scared. but I feel like I can fight."

Kid frowned slightly. "It's just I-" he paused for a moment when something hit his mind. Something that really screwed with their plans right now. He shot up, to Crona's surprise. "DAMMIT ALL!" he exclaimed. Everyone gave him odd looks wondering what the meaning of his sudden outburst was.

"What in the world is wrong with you?" Liz said giving him a slightly angered look.

"That damn IDIOT!" he growled to himself.

Maka rushed up to him. "Kid, what's wrong?!"

Kid pointed to Baba Yaga castle. "Black Star's in that DAMNED castle, isn't he!"

Everyone's eyes immediately widened. "DAMMIT!" is what they all screamed.

Liz walked up to Kid. "Whoa, whoa, whoa." she put her hands up in an attempt to get him to calm down. "How are you so sure that he's in there?"

"Doesn't it seem like something he would do...?"

They all thought to themselves and after a moment, sighed. "Yeah.."

Stein and Sid both face palmed. "I can't believe we forgot about him..." Stein said first.

"How did we not notice that he wasn't here...?"

Soul walked up to Kid and looked with him at the castle. "You sure he's in there?" Soul asked.

"Yeah..." Kid nodded. "I can sense him now..."

"Damn, that's so uncool..."

Stein took his hand away from his face. "Don't worry..." he said. "He has a communicator like everyone else. I'll just call him and tell him to come back." Stein reached for his own communicator and tried contacting Black Star, but there was no response. "Hm...?" he questioned, trying it a few more times. But all he got was buzzing static. Stein stared blankly at the device.

"Um, Stein..." Sid said tapping his shoulder. "Is something wrong...?"

Stein quickly brought his head up. "Okay, we may have a problem."

"Are you serious?" Medusa asked annoyed.

"It seems that his com-link has been disconnected and most likely destroyed."

Soul stepped forward. "Then let's go get him outta there before it's to late."

Then Kid stepped forward. "I'll go. With my Beelzebub, I can get over there quicker."

Stein definitely did not want to send one of his students, but Kid was right. Of all the people here, he was the most likely to rush in and out before the magic cannon fires. Of course Medusa could too, but Black Star had not yet been told that she was on their side. Stein sighed as the words reluctantly came from his mouth. "You have to be as fast as possible."

Kid nodded. He then summoned his skateboard, hopping on instantly. "Liz...Patty, transform."

"What?!" Liz exclaimed. "You're out of your mind if you think I'm going in there."

"There's no time to argue. With you two, I'll be able to go faster and defend myself if I run into anything."

Patty jumped to Kid with an excited "Yay!" and transformed, falling into his hand.

Liz REALLY didn't want to go, but she knew that Kid was right and that he wasn't going to leave until she transformed. She sighed and stepped forward. "Okay..." and like that, he held both of them in his hands.

He glared at the spider castle and charged away at full speed to retrieve their ninja friend.

They all watched as he flew off, wishing him luck. Crona watched as he flew away and under her breath whispered: "Be careful..." for some reason, she did not want to see him go. Sure they were already friends, but Crona remembered back when Kid had said that they where very alike. She remembered how he made her feel like he was someone she could relate to, even if for only a moment. And as he vanished from sight, she once again felt that hot feeling in her chest.

Medusa looked over and saw Crona with what she could have sworn was a light blush. This gave Medusa a feeling of confusion.

As they all watched him fly off, someone contacted Stein on his communicator. Stein responded and answered. "Hello?"

"Stein?" it was Lord Death's voice. "Stein, are you there?"

Stein responded. "Yes, Sir, I'm here."

"Oh good! There's something I have to tell you."

"What is it?"

"The canon's ready."

"GOD DAMMIT!"

EXTRA:

Medusa:...I don't know what to talk about...

Maka: Me neither...

Medusa: Well I guess there is ONE thing I can bring up.

Maka: What is that...?

Medusa: I'd like to ask Crona about that look she gave the reaper boy *

Crona: What?! I didn't give him any look!

Medusa: You're blushing *

Crona: No I'm not!

Medusa: Yes you are *

Again! Another chapter done! Yeah, I'm REALLY trying to dish these thing's out because I really just want to get to the final battle (at least as far as you know). I know that at the end of the last chapter, I said that this one would have some action in it but I guess that's next chapter :)

Also, YES, I'm sorry about all the errors I've made while writing, little grammar mistakes and some spelling fuck ups. I actually looked back at the last two chapters and I was like: Oh my god...

So I'm gonna be fucking proofreading this shit before uploading chapters, so if you STILL find mistake then oh well...

Also, please expect that I might not be able to have all the characters talk. With so many of them in here now, it is kinda hard for me to have a lot of character in one place and have them all individually talk. But you guys could probably already assume that...

Hope your enjoying the story anyway! Please review.