Deep green pines rushed past Chrona's window as classical music trickled out of the driver's seat. The young witch fidgeted on the black leather of the limo, freezing under the full blast of the AC. It was so... fancy compared to what she had expected from her aunt. Most witches lived humble lives to avoid suspicion from Lord Death. Or at least, that's what she had always assumed. Once again she felt out of place, then again; she shouldn't complain. Her estranged aunt had taken pity on her and was quick to offer protection from Medusa and Lord Death alike.
"T-thank you for picking me up Mosquito-sama." She stuttered. "I hate to have been a burden." The short man glanced at her in the rear view mirror.
"It was no burden at all young miss." Mosquito said. "You are Arachne-san's niece, family is always welcome."
"Just family?" Chrona asked. "Then my weapon won't be welcome?"
"Not necessarily, if you want I can pick them up." Mosquito said. His orders had been to make sure Chrona came with him at all costs. Luckily, it seemed Chrona was eager to accept Arachne's help regardless of what conditions may follow. From the description Arachne had given him, he expected her to be hideously unruly child. Perhaps, inspite of Medusa's teachings, she had grown to be more like lady Arachne.
"Oh that won't be necessary, Ragnarok's already here." Chrona said. His eyes widened in shock as said weapon emerged from Chrona's back.
"Ragnarok?" Arachne's son was here, conjoined to his cousin through some dark hybrid of alchemy and necromancy.
"Man Chrona, you sure know how to upgrade your life." Ragnarok said, looking about the back seat. "I mean, a limo, seriously? I never thought you were a gold digger." He could feel the elderly man analyze their reflection in the rearview mirror. Though it was too early to gauge the man's intent. It was in both of their best interest to play dumb and keep Chrona distracted from prying eyes until they had determined it was truely safe.
"W-what? I'm not digging for anything. I'm just sitting in a car." Chrona explained. Her weapon went to hit her, but stopped.
"You know what, I'm gonna' let this one slide." He crossed his arms. "If I hit you too much I'll be knocking out what little brains you got left. Then where would I be?"
"Umm...right here?" Chrona answered. Even after twelve years of ribbing and teasing her, she still could be painfully obtuse towards his jokes.
"That was a rhetorical question, dummy!" The weapon pulled at her cheeks. "I swear, sometimes it really stinks to share your body." Mosquito focused back on the road. So that was why Arachne showed a sudden interest in the girl.
"Ragnarok, stop!" Chrona whined.
It was a shame, she seemed like a nice girl.
Kid walked through Shibusen's halls to the Death Room. All he had to do was talk to his father and he could fix this; he could make the moral judge of the city change his mind. A little courage could go a long way, right? He sighed, maybe he wouldn't be able to fess up about his involvement in the whole case, but he could try to reason with his father instead. When he tried to argue with him the first time he had been overly emotional, irrational. If he explained a clear compromise, calmly, maybe he would get through.
He reached for the handle then stopped. There was so many ways this could go wrong, thirty-seven of which ended with humiliation and a whack to the head. To his surprise, the door was already slightly ajar and Lord Death was tersely speaking with someone. Biting his lip, Kid scoped the hallway and leaned in close enough to hear a pair of recognizable voices.
"I don't see what you have to gain by coming here." His father said. There was a rise of hushed whispers from within the room, about forty or fifty people. No one had told him there was another meeting today. "Then again, that's probably your angle isn't it, Medusa." Kid's face grew pale. Medusa was alive, but Chrona said- "That snake you planted in Marie really messed us up." Chrona's exile wasn't triggered by the investigation at all, it had been the snake witch's meddling this whole time.
"Not me, Chrona. This is the first I've set foot in Nevada since the Kishen was released." Medusa corrected. "Frankly I had hoped to stay out of the desert all together, it's bad for my skin." Chrona was the spy, but why? "I'm here to give information." Medusa said. Kid pulled away from the door, his hands shaking slightly.
'Shini-kun, I found information on Grimoire.'
'Chrona, that's great, but where did you find this? I thought we checked all the books.'
'I'll tell you when you get back.'
Medusa, Medusa was the one that gave her the books. Then the snake must have been payment for the information. Both of them had fallen into this woman's trap, neither thinking for a moment where this fixation with the past would lead. She had ventured to unhealthy lengths to help him and now she was gone. Meanwhile the adults surrounding them continued to barter and argue with each other over the fates of children who had no knowledge of this meeting. A continuation of a cycle where they were viewed as pawns on a chessboard to immortal beings. As things currently stood, nothing would change, regardless of what he said to his father. He let his gaze drop from his father's door and walked lifelessly down the hall.
Medusa had been dragged back to her cell, thick bindings trapper her arms, a door blocked her view. She listened to the footsteps of her escort fade into the darkness. A sigh escaped her lips, she tilted her head to glimpse at the moon through a barred window.
"Mortis, you really haven't changed." She groaned. When she launched her team into the battle of the brew back in Alaska, she had won. Neither side so much as noticed they had been fighting over her knock-off magical item instead of the real brew. With careful planning of course, not brute strength, she let her enemies wear each other down. Her initial plan was to trade the brew for her daughter, but Shinigami-sama kicked her out before she had the chance. "You bastard." She spat. She dropped her gaze from the window, not wanting to dwell on the matter. A cold gust blew into the room, caring with it a few drops of rain. The sky groaned, a clap of thunder echoed through the cramped cell.
The snake witch closed her eyes to fight her own mind. Memories flashed before her in broken sparks. A fragment of her mother surrounded by flames, tied to a stake, while the ancients did nothing. The flames in her mind bled into a rain of fire that fell down on the castle of Salem. The smell of smoke mixed with the damp mud of her home. Witches that had been captured, women and children; the brief glimpse of night shifted in her mind to that of a black cloak.
She recalled the explosion that followed, how the force of the blast sent her careening backward into the swamp. Her safe haven now forever trapped within a storm. She could remember how her body ached and the harsh feeling in her stomach as she coughed up water, the freezing mud that had coated her skin. That day she had stood from the black muck, a soft drizzle fell on her battered skin. She walked barefoot toward the wreckage, among which was their leader drenched in the brilliant red of warfare.
She shook her head, the memories dissipated with each shake and she reoriented herself to the present. Lightning crashed through the sky as she clenched her jaw.
"Calm yourself," She shook, "you'll find her."
The following morning, Kid waited outside the Chupa Cabra bar. The death scythes had been suddenly been assigned a mission under the suggestion of an anonymous tip, that other witches were hiding in Death City. A red-headed woman ran out of the bar clad in a butterfly kimono.
"Run Arisa!" Came a shout from inside the bar. The girl tripped and fell to the floor. Her collision with the ground startled the monarch that clung to her hair. Tearfully, she looked looked up from the ground at the young shinigami. Her eyes locked with his, fear flooded her face at the sight of him. A pang shot through him; she knew who he was, but most of all, knew he wouldn't help her.
"You have both been accused of practicing witchcraft." Sid said. He slipped hand cuffs around Arisa's wrists and picked her up off the ground. "You're under arrest."
"How dare you!" A blond shouted as she too was hand cuffed. "We didn't do anything wrong! Spirit, tell them! They listen to you, don't they?" Spirit had been visiting these hostesses for as long as Kid could remember. Logically, he knew that Spirit could have accidently told them any number of secrets about Death City and then leak it back to the wicken world. But still...
"Sorry, but these are Shinigami-sama's orders." Spirit said. He averted his gaze from the girls. Is this what it was like?
"S-spirit?" Risa said, fear poured from her soul. "You know us, we never hurt anyone! Spirit, please!"
"I'm sorry." He said. The two girls were carted off. Risa continued to object while Arisa cried silently. "I really am."
That evening, Kid had joined his friends in Black Star's hideout, a small circular room in the left tower of Shibusen. Previously the room had been used for storing outdated school equipment.
"Did you guys see the witches that were brought in?" Patty exclaimed to the group. They sat in a circle on mismatched chairs, all slightly shaken by the recent turn of events.
"Yeah, we saw the whole thing." Soul answered. He sunk further into a dusty, old recliner. "Do you know what they did?"
"Who cares?" Patty shrugged. "We're finally getting somewhere! All this waiting and listening has been driving me nuts!" She flopped onto a torn up couched and propped her feet on a lopsided kotatsu.
"Well Kid was there," Tsubaki said, "I'm sure he knows." She turned to Kid expectantly, but the boy said nothing.
"Kid?" Maka asked. He jolted, the group watched him with concern.
"What?" He asked. They continued to stare at him. "Oh. Right. They didn't do anything." Kid mumbled.
"Well then who were they working for?" Liz asked.
"No one, they didn't do anything." Kid reiterated.
"Well surely they must have been plotting something." Tsubaki insisted. "Why else would they have ventured into Death City?"
"Medusa told him he could find witches in hiding there." Kid said. The sudden news throwing his friends into an up roar. Seeing their outrage helped him feel less alone. Clearly, Medusa was the last person any of them wanted to hear from. The fact that his father was now considering her council over theirs was truly a bit alarming. "She's a prisoner here at Shibusen and has been giving us accurate information thus far. My only guess is she hates other witches more than she hates us." The bell rang to end the school day.
"You guys can stay up here if you want." Black Star offered.
"Thanks, but we have to go to work." Liz waved goodbye to the group.
"Yeah," Patty giggled, "thanks for sharing your secret hideout with us." The two walked through the open archway.
"Well it's not much of a secret now." Black Star mumbled.
"I have to go grocery shopping." Tsubaki said. "I'll see you later Black Star." She waved and turned to leave.
"There's an order I have on hold at the record store, they'll cancel it if I don't get there in time." Soul grumbled. He followed the others out.
"I should probably head home too." Kid announced. Maka turned to Black Star her seat on the left.
"I think Soul is right." She said once Kid left. "Kid's been acting strange. I mean, he sat here in this room and didn't once complain about the asymmetry."
"Maybe he's just tired." Black Star shrugged. "We've all been tense since that stupid Kishen was released." Maka bit her lip and looked to the archway. "So I was wondering, if you didn't have a mission today, if you'd like to go to the movies-"
"Something's definitely wrong with Kid." Maka affirmed. "I'm going to talk to him." She stood, "I'll see you tomorrow." With a wave she hurried down the hall to catch up with Kid, leaving Black Star behind. "Kid!" She shouted, said shinigami came into view. "Kid, wait up!" He turned.
"Maka, what's wrong?" He asked.
"That's what I should be asking you." Maka said. "You've been acting strange for the past few days."
"...I'm sorry?" Kid managed.
"There's no need to apologize." Maka said. "Just tell me what's wrong. You know you can talk to me, we're friends after all."
"I honestly don't know-"
"It's Chrona, isn't it." Maka stated. The shinigami deflated, he looked to the side and bit his lip. "Ever since she disappeared your wavelength had been off. I know it must be hard for you-"
"It's none of your business." Kid growled.
"...Kid." Maka rested a hand on his shoulder, but he slapped it away.
"What would we have to talk about?" Kid snapped. "There are things that the are happening that the gods have no control over. You keep running around, thinking you can fix everything, but you can't! You're just a human." Maka's lip trembled.
"You know what? Fine!" She shouted. "I'm sorry I cared!" She brushed past him and refused to look back. It wasn't Maka's fault he was angry at himself, he knew that logically, what happened wasn't fair to anyone.
"How disgusting," He spat. "I must get a better hold on my emotions."