"Give us one good reason not to kill you?"

Free and Eruka cower over Noah who kneels down and has his hands up. "One reason? So um…maybe because I know a way out…and you'd both prefer to escape rather than kill, right?"

The pair look at each other and then back at Noah. Eruka crosses her arms and cautiously stares at him. "What's your plan?"

The male sorcerer hesitates. "I'm afraid I can't exactly tell you. Not yet at least." Free growls and steps forward. "Then you're no use to us!" Standing up and backing away, Noah puts his hands up. "Hey! C'mon now lets not do something we may regret…"

Free glares at him and grabs Noah by the collar of his shirt. Struggling to free himself from the grip, Noah flails around. "Lemme go! Listen to me, damn it! I can help you!" Eruka frowns a bit as she looks at the defenseless male. "Help us how?"

"Put me down and I can tell you!"

Sighing, Free drops Noah and crosses his arms, grunting. "This better be good, punk." Adjusting his coat and wiping his pants, Noah gets to his feet. "What if I told you who killed Mizune?"

Eruka's eyes widen and she looks at Free. He shakes his head and growls. "We already know! It was Crona!" Noah chuckles and looks away. "Heh…sorry for laughing but that isn't even close. It wasn't Crona. But I know who it is. I know who killed her. I heard him say it himself. Right before he killed Giriko." Free knits his brows and gives him a confused look. "Before he killed Giriko? You mean this guy just killed someone again?"

Noah nods. "Yeah. He did. And let me tell you who it is. It's Justin Law."

Glaring at the sky as it begins to darken; Medusa touches her bruised hand and winces. "That stupid kid…He hit my hand…" She lets out a sigh and rests her head on a tree, closing her eyes. Damn it. Where the hell are Free and Eruka? I need those two. I'll die like this. But maybe they already died.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, the snake witch quickly gets to her feet and prepares to attack with her vector arrow. She hisses at the sight of the two individuals. Justin Law and Gopher. Members of Noah's group. The death scythe smiles and tilts his head. "It seems we've caught ourselves a witch. Quite an annoying one too." Launching her vector arrow directly at him, Justin smirks as he easily parries it with his blades. "Oh come on now, you really shouldn't resist like that. Be a good witch and die. Your use has run out anyway."

Confused, Medusa frowns at the young blonde. "What are you on about?"

Justin smiles calmly. "Oh nothing. It's just that last I saw, you were about to kill Noah." Gopher gasps as he recalls the incident and then he suddenly glares at Medusa. "You killed Noah-sama!" The witch scoffs and glowers at them. "Oh trust me, I wish I could have killed the bloke. Always so smug! But luckily for you fools, he's still alive."

Gopher blinks for a moment and then tilts his head. "Noah-sama…is…alive?" The words of Medusa send a joy through Gopher and he quietly giggles, smiling happily. He turns to Justin and beams at him. "Isn't this great, Justin-kun! Noah-sama is alive!"

No. This isn't good at all. This is bad. If he's alive…Internally, Justin was boiling with rage. But he couldn't let Gopher know so he merely smiles instead and nods. "Yes that's great. We'll meet up with him shortly after killing this witch." Medusa quickly shoots another vector arrow at them and turns to run. Blocking the arrow, Justin runs after her. "You won't get away."

Back on the center of the island, Kid and the others all sit in a circle and discuss the plan for escape. "Okay so…Asura says that no one can get out of here…but if he can disappear and appear just out of thin air then surely there's a trick involved."

Soul sighs and shrugs. "Beats me…how long will it take us to find this trick?" Black*Star stands up proudly and grins. "No need to fear! I'll find us a way out! I'll crush anything that gets in my way! We'll bust our way out!"

Tsubaki offers a kind smile and tilts her head. "Maybe that wouldn't be the best approach…"

Maka quickly stands up and frowns. "Ugh, this is hopeless!" She turns away and storms off, leaving the group dazed and quiet. After a moment, Soul stands up. "I'll go get her." Walking over to where Maka was standing, Soul steps beside her. "You alright?"

She shakes her head and looks down. Soul sighs and looks at her. "Alright, what's the problem?"

Maka turns to face Soul, her eyes wet and dripping with tears. "I'm scared, Soul." His eyes slightly widen and he gently grasps her shoulders. "Maka…w-why are you crying?" She looks down at her feet and sniffs, wiping her tears. "It's stupid…"

"Just tell me. You know you can talk to me" Soul assures her. As she meets his gaze, she bites down on her lip. "How much longer can we do this? How much longer can we keep pretending that everything's okay? Sid's dead. Harvar's dead. Who else has to die…?" Soul looks away and knits his brows. "I…I don't know Maka. I really don't know."

Looking into Soul's eyes, Maka leans towards him slowly. "Soul…"

Soul's eyes go wide with shock and he backs away. "We can't." Maka feels her heart shatter at Soul's words and she furiously bites down on her lip, looking down. "Oh…"

He quickly grabs her shoulders, making her look at him. "No, I mean…we really can't. Look behind you!"

Confused, Maka turns around and suddenly gasps as she sees Medusa rushing towards them. But something was off about Medusa. She wasn't walking right. It was as if she was injured. And sure enough, as she got closer, Maka could see the wounds on her. Medusa was bleeding and had cuts on her arms and on her waist.

"W-What..." Maka starts but stops as she sees two figures appear behind Medusa. It was Justin Law followed by Gopher. Soul grabs Maka's arm and runs. "We have to tell the others. Fast. We can't get caught up in this."

Soon sinking to her knees, Medusa pants heavily. She could hear the footsteps behind her approaching. How the hell is that damned death scythe so quick?

Gazing up at the sky, she squints. It was only getting darker but she felt that beyond all of it, she could see the stars. Am I going to die?

The footsteps behind her finally stop. Justin smiles as he stands a foot behind Medusa. "Well it seems you've finally stopped running. That should make things fairly-"

Medusa quickly turns around, shooting a vector arrow at him. Barely able to avoid it, Justin groans as the arrow grazes the side of his face and a trickle of blood pours from his cheek. Getting to her feet and limping quickly, Medusa uses all of her strength to get away. No. I won't die. Not like this. Not to pathetic scum like him.

Holding his bleeding cheek, Justin glares. Gopher rushes to his side and stares in astonishment. "Justin-kun, are you okay?"

The death scythe nods and winces a bit. "I'm fine…now go finish her off." Gopher's eyes widen at the sudden command. "W-What?"

"Are you deaf or something? I said to go finish her off!" Justin snarls angrily as he glowers at Gopher. The young male is taken aback and hesitates as he sees Medusa start to further away. "I…I don't know…Noah-sama's plan had been to just watch them kill each other…I d-didn't think we'd have to…do anything…"

Grabbing Gopher's shirt, Justin yells at the top of his lungs, "I said: go finish her off already, you useless scum!"

Whimpering and his lip quivering, Gopher backs away, suddenly scared of Justin's sudden outburst. Still glaring at Gopher and filled with rage, Justin unsheathes his blades and steps towards the young male. "That's it! You've proved to be nothing but useless!"

"J-Justin-kun…w-what are you doing…?" Nearly about to cry and in fear for his life, Gopher continues to back away, confused about why Justin suddenly was so hostile.

"Don't even think about it, Justin."

The voice makes Gopher's heart leap with joy. It makes Justin however, turn around and glare, his anger only getting worse.

Noah smiles as he crosses his arms, Free and Eruka at his side. "Its been a while, huh guys?"

Finally getting to Kid and the others, Soul cries out, "Guys! We have to go! Big problem! Justin and Medusa! They're fighting!"

Panicking, the group quickly gets up and rushes in the opposite direction, trying to get as far away as possible. Maka looks back at the scene, wondering what was going on. Was it really the right thing to do to just leave? Should we have stopped it?

"Heh. This is gonna be good!" The Kishin grins as he looks into his camera, seeing the confrontation between Noah and Justin. "There better be at least two deaths or I want my money back! Oh wait…I didn't pay for this…cuz it's free! Heh. What a show this'll be." Grinning, he sits back and relaxes, watching intently.

END OF CHAPTER 8
DEATH COUNT: 4