The death scythes gathered in Shinigami-sama's chambers were already on high alert. Before them, the tiny Medusa stood in chains, her head bowed in reference with a smirk on her face. This gathering of soldiers was more reminiscent of a witch trial than a peace summit. Though the witch didn't mind. The more people who bore witness to her pleas, the easier it would be to get what she wanted. After all, giving up a wanted criminal's location was a huge barganing chip, she needed to make sure she was paid in full.
"Absolutely not!" Spirit exclaimed. "Shinigami-sama this is obviously a trap!" Medusa held up a tiny hand.
"Hush now, the grownups are talking." Medusa stared Lord Death in the face. "Do we have a deal?" The shinigami was uncharacteristically stiff in his motions, doubtlessly aware his little followers were judging their every move.
"What makes you think I'll let you lead the mission in Arachne's castle?" Shingami asked gravely. The witch smirked.
"You don't have any other options." It wasn't her fault that Shibusen enjoyed sending children onto the battlefield. Regardless of who accompanied her, she needed miesters to act as her body guards if she ever hoped to break through Arachne's defenses. The more confusion they could stir up, the greater the chance of success. It made sense to work together, but trying to appeal to an emotional immortal was no small task.
"Fine." Shinigami-sama towered over her. "...On one condition."
The following night, two enemies worked in tandem to infiltrate the maze-like depths of Arachne's base of operations. Sneaking in was the easy part, with so many new recruits coming in, it was easy to blend with the crowd. The real trick was to avoid getting noticed by someone in Arachne's closer circle. Her informants were unpredictable and volatile, liable to cause a scene the moment they noticed something was amiss. It didn't matter how useful Medusa's information was, because the person Shinigami put in charge of the operation was, surprise, a child.
Granted, Maka's talents for viewing the souls of anyone within close proximity was useful, no doubt. But the young girl telegraphed every thought on her face, and right now, she was livid. Maka's group brought up the rear of the invasion force while Ox and the others followed their leader closely. The scythe miester couldn't help but spare seething glances over her shoulder at the child-like witch. How could Shinigami-sama let Medusa of all people on this mission? All the adults had avoided her questions as if ashamed, leaving her with vague, nothing answers. She wanted to ask Kid; but had a feeling if he knew, he wouldn't tell her.
"I can feel you glaring at me," Medusa said coolly. "if you have something to say, then say it." The witch brushed past her and pointed down another stone hallway. She tapped her tiny foot as she watched each miester follow her instruction down the winding path. Maka hung behind, unable to hold her tongue any longer.
"You have a lot of nerve trying to order us around." Maka spat. "I know you tricked Chrona into spying on Shibusen, and if that's not enough, you kidnapped her from the people who actually loved her! Then you had the gall to turn around and demand to lead the mission-"
"You're mistaken." Medusa followed after the group, standing tall. "If you recall, it was Shibusen who banished my daughter. When that happened, I waited with open arms for her to come home," she couldn't meet Maka's accusatory glare, "but she never came." Her tone was so soft and mournful Maka couldn't fuel the flame of her anger. She tried to remind herself this is Medusa, a known manipulator. A shape-shifting witch that chose to remain in the body of a child during a time of impending war. "I may be nothing but an object of fear to my daughter, but I am a mother above all else and no mother wants to be separated from their child. That's why I need to lead this mission, Arachne has my daughter."
"Hold on." Soul could see Maka struggle to respond to the witch's odd confession. "Why would Arachne have Chrona?" Medusa stood in silence, her shoulders slumped, her head hung low.
"She plans to kill her." Medusa whispered.
Arachne sat suspended over the broken floor, a placid smile on her face. She sipped ideally at a glass of wine in blithe anticipation of the coming news. Between her hobby of channeling magic into machines and her unexpected reunion with her family, she had been quite busy these past few days.
Mosquito and Giriko walked into the room.
"The morality machine is functioning in full force." Mosquito reported. "The tanuki witch has become our ally as well as her friend." So the machine could give her control weapons and witches; if only she had a human she could test it on. Still, the thought of turning Shinigami-sama's army of weapons onto her side with the flick of a switch was certainly good news. They just had to make a version that could affect more than one person at a time. That shouldn't be too hard.
"Wonderful." Arachne smiled. She turned to Giriko.
"Yer niece is sound asleep in her room. She still thinks that you're putting her up for a few nights." Giriko replied. Arachne was more than capable of pretending to be nice, but she had worried someone lower on the payroll would give her away. Best to keep the girl in her room until they could guarantee she'd follow directions blindly.
"Just as she should," Arachne replied. "Oh, Mosquito? How far along has Eibon gotten?" The short man frowned.
"He still requires some materials madam." Mosquito grumbled. "He claims that the body is almost finished."
"Then give him access to the necessary materials." Arachne concurred. They were so close. After years of waiting and worrying about what her sister had done to her child, she'd finally be able to have him home again. There was just so much damage her sister had done, which would be difficult to undo.
Ragnarok had been melted in his weapon form into a liquid and used to replace Chrona's blood; but it shouldn't have kept him from shape-shifting back into his original form. To prevent them from separating, Medusa had created multiple seals that sutured the two together. To make matters worse, his soul had been cut to stretch around Chrona's completely, then forced to strength by consuming innocent souls. To the untrained eye, she might even look like a weapon instead of a witch, like a camouflage. It also meant, if Chrona ever surpassed Ragnarok in power, he would be in immediate danger. Yet, Ragnarok was also unable to consume Chrona's soul and take over the body from the inside. So, it was up to Arachne to try an intervene, and current specialists weren't up for such a delicate task. "The sooner we get my son out of that parasitic body, the better."
"Wait, what?" Giriko shouted. "Let me get this straight; ya hired an outside guy to make an artificial body, when you got me!"
"Giriko, quiet down. You're giving momma a headache." Arachne chided. "I know you're very good at making golems, but Ragnarok needs a living body to transmute to."
"What do you think I've been doing the past 800 years?" Giriko demanded. Like a phoenix from the ashes, he had infused his soul into his desendents with great success. He was quite proud of how long he'd managed to keep himself intact. Certainly made drinking easier when you could just move to the next body if his current one ever got trashed.
"I'm sorry," Arachne sighed. "but creating a living body from scratch requires a sophisticated magic that you simply can not do. Eibon is the only one I know who has successfully created an artificial person. Now run along, I have business to attend to."
"I'm going to have a drink." Giriko grumbled. Mosquito watched as the chainsaw stormed out of the room.
"Such a disrespectful child." Mosquito grimaced. "I have no idea why you took him in."
"He needed me." Arachne replied.
"Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but he is a grown man now." Mosquito said. "Perhaps it is time for him to move out?" Arachne sat back and pondered the notion.
"Yes, I suppose the bird does have to leave the nest."
Darkness enveloped the group as they sat on the stone floor of Baba Yaga castle. Medusa had snuck off to nab a disguise for the students. So they sat in wait for the witch to come back. Between the anxiety of sneaking into a witch's lair and the many close calls, tensions were high. Black Star couldn't help himself, he laughed.
"For the last time," Kid hissed, "let it drop!" Soul turned to Black Star with a wicked grin.
"Yeah Black Star, don't insult our flash light." Soul snickered, Kid glared at the two. Honestly, they were acting like kindergarteners the way they carried on.
"I'm serious, it's not funny." Kid felt equal parts embarrassed and fearful his friends would catch on to what he was doing. Investigating his father had already gotten one student exiled, he couldn't risk the other as well. With all that had happened as of late, he didn't trust his father; especially with a magic tool as dangerous as the brew. So, before setting out on his mission, he pocket the brew to keep it safe. What he hadn't counted on, was that the brew reacted to soul wavelengths and magic by lighting up.
"Don't get mad at us." Black Star chuckled, "We're not the ones with the magical glowing ass!" The two laughed for a while before Black Star became oddly serious. "Do all gods glow like a lightning bug?" A black cloak hit him in the face as Medusa approached them with an armful of robes. The best way to avoid detection was pretending like they worked for Arachne. She was able to scrap together enough lower-rank uniforms, that everyone could stay out of trouble. So long as they trusted her.
"Put these on." Medusa hushed. Each student slipped on their new uniform, each in identical masks and cloaks. They scrambled to identify each other.
"Wait," Soul exclaimed, "where's Medusa?" There was no sign of the short witch anywhere.
"CRAP!" Black Star shouted. A hand covered the air holes in his mask.
"Black Star!" Maka hissed. "We're not supposed to be here, remember." A man cleared his throat and the group turned. There Mosquito stood with two guards, clearly disgruntled.
"Gentlemen; take them," Mosquito ordered, the group shifted in muted fear, "and assign them jobs." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "We do not have time to laze about. You two," He gestured to Kilik and Black Star, "come with me." The group had been split. Among them, Maka had been selected for cleaning duty and sent to a racous room far from her companions. Her superior officer glanced down at her and sighed.
"Just get the bottles and get out, you'll be fine." He opened the door and gave her a quick push. With a click the door shut her in. She shuddered, the room humid and musty; the floor was caked with dirt. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Someone was looking at her, someone familiar.
A man about nineteen or twenty lay on the couch, he glared at her lazily and took a swig of alcohol. His brown hair stuck out at an odd angle, the sleeves to his dress shirt had been ripped off. It had to be the chainsaw man she fought when Arachne surfaced, Giriko.
"Hey! What are ya doing in here?" He asked. His hand slapped the arm of the couch possessively. "This is my room." Maka trembled, the man before her was clearly intoxicated and she had nothing to protect herself if he became enraged. How she loathed being dependent on a weapon at times like these.
"Umm... well, they wanted me to clean up in here." She stuttered. She was completely helpless before him and she hated it. Oh, if only Soul were here, she could at least pretend like she wasn't as scared as she felt. Giriko's features softened.
"Oh yeah, they keep coming in here to clean up. I don't see why, it just gets messy again." The bottle he held slipped from his lax grip and shattered on the floor. He looked down at the beer with hazed disappointment. "I still wanted that." He pouted. There was a pause and he looked up at her. There was something he was missing, something obvious. "You're a girl, aren't you?" Was that it? He stood up and looked at her.
"Yes." She squeaked. Well she was a girl, so that must have been it he reasoned. Maybe he could have some extra fun with her, he frowned; his mind slowed by the drink. She sounded young, and he wasn't in the brightest condition; well better safe then sorry. He should probably get her out of here before he got really drunk.
The door was flung open yet again. Why did people keep barging into his room? Well it was a pleasant surprise none the less, two blond cosplayers; definitely the safer bet. He looked down to the cloaked girl.
"If you want, you can come back in about two years." He told her. She nodded and began to leave as he greeted his new guests. However, the girl slipped on one of the discarded bottles on her way out. He turned to the fallen girl, his attention attracted by the load thump and saw her face. She was younger than he thought! "Make that ten." He shook his head, maybe he should lay off the beer.
It only took an hour for him to get shit-faced. Which was a little odd, normally he could hold his own more, and normally the drinks didn't taste so off. Having two pretty girls constantly refilling his glass with cheap beer probably wasn't helping him stay sober, but it was better than drinking alone.
"I hated muh parents," Giriko slurred. "Naw, Ah mean really hated them. Couldn't stand having a weapon for a kid. They were always on business trips so they won't have ta deal with me. It wuz really stupid of me tha runaway, buh hay, Ah wuz seven." He took a drink from his seventh bottle of beer. He paused, his mood somber. "Ah usually jus hung out at a park near thish church. It wuzn' too bad, nobody bothered me fer stayin' there.
"Then one day Ah hear a woman cursin' out the priestses of the church. She kept goin' on about how they were supposed to watch someone fer her. They made her leave and she came over ta tha park Ah wuz stayin' at. N' man wuz she a complete mess; dress wuz torn, snarreled hair, maskera lines streakin' down her face. Ah did muh best ta comfert her, buh she told me ta go home.
"Of course Ah considered the park muh home at the time, so Ah just crawled under tha slide. When she saw that Ah had nowhere tha go, she raiseded me." He took a glass from the younger girl and took another gulp of the foul liquid. "Ya know, sometimes, Ah wunder if she really even cared or if Ah was jus replacin' tha kid~" He slumped to the side, drugged by the two girls who worked for Shibusen.
It really was frightening how much of her sister Arachne could see in Chrona; right down to that cloying desire for acceptance. As she kept the girl distracted with high tea and other opulent distractions, the spider witch felt old habits take hold. A clumsier version of her false niceness, fueled by the hope that somewhere inside Ragnarok recognize his mother. Still, Chrona kept him under lock and key, still too uncomfortable to let him speak for himself. Arachne poured a peach liquid into a delicate, gold rimmed cup. She smiled at her niece, who took the cup in her trembling hands.
"I'm so glad we could spend time together." She chimed. "It's been a while since I've had pleasant relations with the rest of my family." Chrona nodded in agreement as she sipped the sweet tea. An alarm ran through the small chamber. Chrona, startled, jolted in her chair and cause the contents of her cup to slosh over the rim and sprinkle on the faded table cloth.
"What was that!" Chrona exclaimed.
"Intruders, probably from Shibusen." Arachne frowned, there would be no time for proper introductions it seemed. That hopeful glint in Chrona's eyes at the mention of Shinigami-sama's army was not encouraging.
"You won't hurt them, will you?" Chrona asked with concern. Arachne gave Chrona a sympathetic smile.
"Of course not, I wouldn't dream of it." She said. "I'll just have them escorted out of here, they are trespassing after all." Chrona nodded sadly and traced the rim of her cup as she slowly sat back down at the table. She had to remember, these people were her enemies now, not her friends. Her aunt pursed her lips as she thought. "It seems one of interest to you is here. A boy, in a black suit?"
"That's Shini-kun!" Chrona exclaimed.
"Oh is it?" Arachne replied casually. "If you want, I could let you see him before he has to leave. It wouldn't hurt for you to at least say hello, let them know you're happy here and what not." Chrona's eyes lit up.
"Really, you mean it?" Chrona beamed. Her aunt nodded calmly. "Thank you! Thank you so much! You're the best!" Arachne chuckled lightly with a wave of her hand.
"Take the door to the left, he isn't too far."
Across the compound, far from Arachne's tea room, Mosquito sliced through Kid's arm with ease. His weapons watched as it fell to the ground in a river of his own blood. His mind unraveled at the sight of his arm. He was asymmetrical; obviously, hideously asymmetrical. Any intense pain was numbed by the shock of seeing his arm lie on the cold stone. Nothing, he felt nothing, not even the air he needed to breath as it came in and out of his lungs in shallow bursts. The shouts of his weapons were dull in his ears, his senses hazed. He felt his limbs buckled beneath him from blood loss.
'What do you think you're doing?' His mind hissed. 'Get up!' Kid quivered on the floor. He couldn't stand! Helplessly, he watch his foe circle the battle ground and evade attacks from his grieving weapons. The brew buzzed in his back pocket. 'Damn it, you can't die here! Get up!' He felt his back pocket spark as spectral ribbons spill out of the brew. They wrapped around his soul and constricted. The first line connected an instantly his soul expanded, filled with an artificial power. He reached for his arm with his shoulder, his wavelength taking hold and pulled it toward him forcefully. He glared at Mosquito as the limb reattached with a sickening crunch.
"You really shouldn't have done that." He growled.
Chrona threw open the door and dashed inside a cramped room. Finally she'd get a chance to talk with Kid, to tell him why she left.
"Just think Ragnarok," Chrona squealed, "He might even be able to come by and visit sometime. And I'm sure Arachne-san wouldn't mind our researching Shibusen. This whole place is nothing but research people."
"Yeah, sure." Ragnarok tried, he didn't have it in him to burst her bubble, especially with his suspicion about their predicament festering in the back of his mind.
Then the door closed behind them.
A small lantern flickered to illuminate the stuffy room. The walls were bare and only a gurney occupied the room. She turned slowly to the source of the dying light. A man stood in front of one of the doors that lead out of the room, he sighed.
"It's a shame you've been tampered with so," he shook his head, "you would have been perfect for my collection." Chrona bowed.
"I-I'm sorry, I must have entered the wrong room by mistake. She went to the other door, but a smoky leach blocked the exit. "Umm... sir, I have to go meet someone."
"I can't let you do that." He opened a leather book, the golden 'S' emblem shimmered in the lantern light. He pulled at the page, a string of text pealed form the book. "Now, let's do something about those pesky bonds you've made." The text came at her and circled her neck, then the world faded from her vision.
AN: Thank you new follower of reminding me that I love this fic and hadn't finished editing it yet! I've been going through a rough breakup and just, boy has it been a time waiting for this storm to blow over.