A/N: Gonna try to update faster... Maybe. Anyway, here's the big moment everyone's been waiting for.

Part 6

Stein closed his eyes and tried to eliminate distractions. No matter how tightly he held onto the staff, his hands felt weak. They were sweating, as if his own body was trying to prevent him from holding the weapon.

"How does it feel?" Griffin said, the invisible voice still approaching. "You're not getting to do what you want anymore, are you. But you still can Franken, with me."

Stein grit his teeth and looked up to where he knew the man must be standing. He was within reach.

"Stein? What are you waiting for!?" Spirit asked.

"Yes, what are you waiting for?" Griffin said, directly in front of him now.

Stein took a breath and found it shallow.

"Soul Force!"

"...Stein!?"

Griffin began cackling, because the hand Stein had abruptly thrust out to strike him, while it did impact the invisible body, had failed to deal the expected blow of Stein's soul wavelength. Stein took a step back and looked at his clammy hands.

Weak. Empty. Just like they had been in the classroom all those years ago.

"What's happening!? What's wrong!?" Spirit cried.

"Even your own soul is telling you to join me," Griffin said. He cleared his throat, and then his voice became dark and menacing. "I'll make it easier for you. What if I eliminate one of your obstacles?"

Just as thunder follows a bolt of lightning, Stein understood the warning too late to stop what he realized was going to happen. His hands returned to the staff to yank Spirit out of harm's way at the same moment he heard numerous impacts of metal upon metal, and then the horrible scraping like nails on a chalkboard.

"No!" he cried as Griffin became visible again, revealing both of his arms had transformed to trap Spirit's blade between them.

Griffin had been a morning star—a bludgeon with two-inch spikes sticking out of the shot put sized ball at the end of the short handle. But now he had turned both of his arms into a far more dangerous version of himself, the spikes protruding all around the length of his forearms up to his elbows. Stein watched in horror as the attack was dealt, Griffin swiping both arms down forcefully, scraping the shining blade of the scythe that Stein had left vulnerable. And the steel itself, impossibly, began to bleed.

"No! Don't—!" Stein shouted again as he knew again what was about to happen, but it was too late.

It was with a sharp cry of pain that Spirit had transformed out of weapon form, injured from the vicious blow. But that proved to be the fatal error as Griffin pressed his forearms hard into the torso of the now-human death scythe, an evil rumble sounding from within his chest as the spikes now had something to sink into. Time seemed to slow as Stein watched Griffin yank his arms down across Spirit's body, rending flesh from bone. The sound of Spirit's chest and back being ripped apart by the spikes was drowned out almost immediately by his scream of agony, and the rumble of laughter in Griffin's chest erupted into a triumphant guffaw, the man stepping back and doubling over as he reveled in his victory.

Stein was on his knees in an instant, catching Spirit as he fell. He felt the heat of blood saturating his clothes as Spirit gasped for breath, rapidly going into shock, and a terror Stein had never before felt anchored him to the sand. Above them their enemy towered, silhouetted by the rising sun as he raised his spiked arms in triumph, blood dripping from the deadly weapons down to the golden sand.

"Better now?" Griffin said, and Stein looked up as a strange numbness slowly swept his being, beginning to bury the paralyzing fear. A broad and crazed smile was bisecting Griffin's face as he transformed his arms and doubled over again, setting his hands on his knees as he barely bothered to stop laughing while he spoke. "No more Death Scythe! No more big brother watching over your shoulder to stop you each time you want to be free!"

Stein felt a small pull at his shoulder and glanced down to see blood, and then realized that Spirit's fingers were weakly gripping his coat. He watched Spirit's eyes start to lose focus as his soul began to weaken.

"Shake off the chains of the DWMA," Griffin said, his tone now giddy. "You and I together can depose Lord Death and finally create a free world!"

Stein looked up again. Griffin was still employing Soul Protect, but he felt he could see through him nonetheless beyond the laughter and boast. And he was far from the bright young classmate he had once known.

He pursed his lips, words failing him, but then looked down with a sharp intake of breath as he felt the grip at his shoulder weaken. He watched Spirit's eyes glaze over as his bloodied hand slipped away and heavily hit the sand.

"Hehhehehheh..."

Stein felt a strange desire to hold on tighter, but instead he carefully lay Spirit on his side. He looked at the dried blood on his face and then down to the wash of red below, intermixed with the tatters of the green shirt and the pink of torn flesh beneath it all.

He slowly rose to his feet and lifted his arms. Where he'd caught Spirit his sleeves were entirely red with the slick, fresh blood. Then his gaze rose to his hands. Peripherally he saw Griffin straighten up, his mad laughter finally ceasing.

"So. Which world do you choose, Franken Stein?"

Stein stared at his hands and the smears of blood now staining them. He knew what had gone wrong.

He had allowed Griffin's taunts to weaken his resolve. He had doubted what he knew to be true, and doubted himself. Doubted his place. And thanks to that weakness he had permitted to enter his soul...

He looked back at Spirit, lifeless and with long, unnatural shadows of the slough grass falling over his unmoving form under the rising sun.

"He was always so bossy, anyway."

Stein looked back at Griffin. The grin on his face was sickening.

"Soul Force!"

This time, his resolve was sure. The electricity that manifested out of his wavelength sizzled from his hand over and into his opponent at the same time a sonic shock wave from the speed of the attack cracked in the air around them.

Griffin's eyes were wide with surprise, not having expected the blow, and his grunt of pain came out strangled as he coughed up blood as a result of the fierce attack.

Stein swept his former compatriot's feet out from under him while he was distracted, dropping him hard on his back. He immediately knelt next to the enemy, striking again with both hands.

"Soul Force!"

The shock wave was stronger this time, the small sonic boom echoing against the butte and through the air as the sand rippled out from beneath them. Another vomitous cough was Griffin's response, but then he cackled evilly as blood ran down his cheek. Stein watched one of the madman's arms transform back into the spiked bludgeon, ready to retaliate even as he spit blood into the sand.

The meister sat back on his heels with a heavy sigh.

"Sutures."

"Wha...what...? What did you do to me!?" Griffin snarled as he struggled, now immobilized.

Stein closed his eyes to aid his concentration. He blindly felt in his pocket for a cigarette, but gave up as the package slipped through his blood-covered fingers. He said nothing in reply, not caring to explain the special technique and needing to focus.

He opened his eyes and looked beyond his furious opponent to where Spirit still lie unmoving. The numbness was increasing. A familiar apathy was seeping into his soul, and he fought to stall it off until he could finish his task.

"I'm disappointed in you, Stein."

His eyes narrowed. With hardly a thought, he pulled a scalpel from his pocket.

"I think I'll cut you into pieces now."

He meant the words, but found his hand didn't move on his brain's command. He would find no pleasure here.

If the mission had in fact been a test from Lord Death, he had failed. Even if the battle was won...the loss of a weapon was unforgiveable for a meister. Especially like this.

He felt his control slipping, and he grit his teeth and bowed his head as he watched Griffin yank his transformed arm free, the soul thread sutures that had held it snapping and vanishing into the sand. He reached up to turn the screw in his head.

"Stein."

His head snapped up at the sound of the weak voice. Somehow, Spirit was conscious. He watched as his injured partner blinked once, twice, and then weakly slid his arm across the sand toward him.

"How..." Stein breathed even as he rose to his feet in understanding.

"You can't win!" Griffin said desperately, swiping uselessly at Stein's legs as he stepped over him. But as the captive continued struggling, the soul thread sutures at his knees began to snap.

Spirit's arm rose up barely a few inches from the ground, shaking, and Stein's bloodied hand gripped his. A brief moment and a flash of magical light, and Stein once again held the death scythe.

His grip was sure, and this time he didn't hesitate for an instant. Without ceremony he spun back around and fiercely brought the blade down into the chest of their enemy with a horrible, wet crunching sound, feeling it pierce all the way through the man's back and sink deeply into the sand.

He held tightly to the staff, his breaths heavy as the red eyes of the man he once might have called friend stared up at him in shock.

"A godless world is doomed to madness," Stein said, as the life began slipping from the man's eyes. With this attack the Soul Protect was finally broken, and Stein saw with despair that a shriveled, evil soul was all that was left of Griffin.

The look of shock remained on their old classmate's face as the enemy breathed his last, and once the slain body had expired the soul separated and hovered above it, ready to be consumed.

Stein let go. It was with an involuntary cry of pain that Spirit transformed again, not even attempting to gain his feet and falling instantly. But Stein was already on his knees.

He caught him again and stared grimly at the wounds and then at Spirit's pained expression. But when the scythe opened his eyes his gaze went beyond Stein, to the floating, corrupted soul.

"You want that?" Stein asked flatly.

"Not really," Spirit said with a slight shake of his head, and then he passed out.

This time Stein held on tighter.