I'LL HEAD TOWARDS TOMORROW

3 months, 2 weeks after Asura

It was cold and dark. For eternity it stretched, a blanket of absolute black against what felt like granite. Agni had been standing here for what seemed like years. Her entire mind was covered in madness, and the buzz was a welcome distraction; but it could only do so much for the anguish in her heart.

She had never imagined being apart from her sister; they had never been separated. She didn't know that she would be consumed by an emptiness that even the madness couldn't fill. Why did her sister leave her? There was no warning to her treason; no words that would make it better.

They were forged from the same cursed steel; the same black blood flowed in their veins. They were sisters as humans, and sisters as weapons. They were a pair that drew strength off of the other. Fire was accentuated by wind, and vice versa.

The numbing darkness was too much for her; if only Rudra was with her. They shared this space, communicated through this dark space of madness. But now it was quiet; not even the echo of her sister's memory remained. She let out a heavy sigh, which seemed to bounce off of invisible walls. It was deafening, making her cover her ears painfully.

Had she really valued these people more than her? Could she really abandon her to help the people they were working to enslave? Agni bitterly supposed that she could do those things because she had. She only wondered now if she regretted her decisions.

Agni had been in her weapon form for four full days and was beginning to get achey and fidgity. She wanted to stretch and fight - a sad realization overcame her that she wouldn't be able to fight as a meister anymore. She had no weapon to wield. She was no longer calling the shots; Soul was in command now.

But being with Soul, being with the chosen entity of madness, was the best thing that had happened to her.

This is what she was meant to do, this was the sole purpose she was created. To serve a kishin who could be twisted to her will, unlike Asura. He had been too scared of her plans, and she had cast him aside. Now Soul would lead them in spreading world-wide panic among thousands of countries. She had big plans for him, and she only hoped he could live up to them.

"Agni, we're here." A flash of light blinded him, and moments later Agni took form beside him, stretching her back and legs. Her fingers were twitching, and every now and then she would jerk her head to the side; as if she saw something just on the edge of her vision. They were standing at the gaping maw of a cave, hesitant to enter. It sounded as though something had taken up residence here; but this was the place her memories showed him.

He reached back and grabbed her arm, pulling her with him as he entered the cave. She followed dilligently, humming quietly to herself. It was pitch black after a few moments, and Soul almost panicked. A soft glow radiated from behind him and he turned to see Agni desperately huddling close to a small flame. Another memory came to him; a fear of darkness. He felt a vague pang of sympathy for his weapon before rolling his eyes and releasing her arm.

They continued on, Soul walking slow enough for her flame to light his path, and Agni haulted her humming. A few more feet and sconces dimly marked the beginning of the lair.

Soul's shoes clicked against the hard rock that made up a network of caves. Arachnophobia had holed up here, their last hidden retreat buried deep in woods of what could be a national park. There were almost no members walking around; there was a stray subordinate in a gray-ish lab coat, and another one in black robes, but that was it. It seemed that the organization had truly gone to ruin after Arachne's demise.

Agni quickly took the lead and they silently wove their way through what seemed to be a maze. Soul recalled that she was awful with directions and had probably gotten lost; this was reinforced when they passed the entrance a second time. He almost took the lead, opening his mouth to say something, when they came into a large room with a wooden table in the center.

Justin Law, Giriko, and Mosquito all rose when they walked to their seat. It was Giriko who spoke first.

"Where is Rudra?"

"She rejected me and ran back to the DWMA."

Everyone's faces displayed something different. Mosquito didn't look surprised, he only wrinkled his nose at the inconvenience. Giriko began cursing and sputtering out 'this won't work' for a few moments before Justin Law stood up. The look on his face was severe; contorted by anger and frustration. First Maka was inelligable, and now they had lost one of their main pieces in this operation?

He wiped his face before sitting back down with a sigh. The cocky look came back, and Agni felt her brow furrow. What was he so confident about? Surely he knew every implication that came with having half of a set; Agni wasn't nearly as strong as she normally would be. Not only that, but she was also much harder to control without her sister. It was like running electricity through an open circuit; unless they could fill the spot Rudra had left, they wouldn't be able to fully resonate.

Justin was in a bit of a pinch and he could admit that. He had lost the versatile twin; but Rudra was also defiant. If she had defected later in their plans, everything would fall apart. But there was still time to bring Soul and Agni up to speed. After all, Agni was much more powerful than her sister, and she also followed orders.

He laced his fingers in front of his face and rested his elbows on the table, motioning for Giriko to speak. If anyone would be able to find a way around the rules, it was the one who wrote them.

Giriko wasn't so sure of this now. He had been tagging along so he could get the chance to not only witness a very real change in the world -due in part to his own work, no less- but to get the chance to fight again. Without Rudra, it would take much longer to get Agni acclimated to being wielded and channeling madness alone.

"Look, I don't wanna say this is gonna work 'cause it's not. But if you can manage to train a weapon and a meister how to switch roles and be able to go up against other weapons and meisters of equal strength, as well as making Agni a weapon who can shatter the world solo, then you can consider this plan. If only for the fact that we needed Agni more than we did her sister." Her intense glare was something he recalled with almost despair.

But this was different. Her gaze was burning him, her hair dancing behind her and burning the chair. She was fire given corporeal form and she commanded respect; not only for herself, but for her sister as well. Even if Rudra had abandoned her, and even if Agni wasn't aligned with her, neither sister would stand for any slander to come to each other. It was the only thing they could solidly do for each other, regardless of affiliation.

"She'll come back. If she took them, it was to protect them; it's only a matter of time before she follows them in their attempt to thwart our plans."

"She can't be that stupid. She knows what'll happen if she comes near me." Agni shot a pointed look at Soul, saying that she was that stupid. Soul's madness called to the sisters, no matter how far they were from him. It pulled them to him, made them more aggressive and it made them stronger. When they came in contact with him, it was the beginning of a bond that wouldn't be broken until his death; as was the case with Asura.

If Soul got his hands on Rudra, her defection would be pointless.

"We need to get you two trained and ready to fight before we start moving." Mosquito had stood from his seat and began pacing. He was planning out training regimes, katas, soul resonance. He was planning every moment of every type of training they could possibly need to combat the students of the DWMA; he knew better than anyone that they were more formidable than they appeared.

Justin nodded to this and offered his services as a teacher. While he may not have been alive as long as Mosquito, he was certainly proficient in adapting to unfamiliar fighting styles. Agni hesitated, but Soul was quick to accept. He needed to know how to harness this power within him, if he was going to use it.

"What is our plan, anyway? It doesn't seem like my 'madness' or whatever is affecting you, much less the whole world." Law grinned at this, making Giriko blanch and leave the table. He didn't need to hear this spiel again; he would much rather terrorize the little witch while Mifune wasn't looking.

"We're going to activate a series of explosions within the connection of magma chambers that make up the Ring of Fire. These explosions will cause eruptions of volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. No one will be safe, everyone will fear for their lives. Your madness will grow as you wield the swords; which is why we needed both of them. But Agni will be more than enough to begin the process. Your madness, whether it is added at the beginning or end of this plan, will plummet the world over the edge of sanity."

Over the course of Justin's theatrical explaination, Soul's face split with a disgusting grin; there were gears spinning in his head, and his vigor was renewed. He needed to learn how to control his powers, and Agni needed to learn how to properly channel his madness to augment her element. If they could pull it off, then the entire world would be soaked in madness, everyone filled with fear and irrational anger. Chaos would descend and grip the human population, madness becoming a revolution to free them from all the bound them.

If this plan worked, he would be able to go back to Maka.