The stone walls of Arachne's underground home radiated an unsettling chill, even the magical flames that lit the hallway shied away from the darkness. Her organization was thousands strong, and yet, only the occasional stray employee would rush by without a single word. It was familiar to Chrona in a way, the safety that was found in complete isolation, but after so many weeks in the sun she couldn't call it comforting. The dungeon layer of Shibusen had been empty, but the halls were always warm and bright. This place was nestled in the bowels of a destroyed castle.
Left to her own devices Chrona walked into a grand chamber at the end of the long hallway. Each step echoed off the barren walls. Chains coiled in rusted heaps around the perimeter in the room. The torches were doused; only a few trickles of sunlight illuminated the room. At the end of the room was a moth-eaten burgundy throne, though the frame was still elegant. It appeared she found yet another abandoned room.
"Chrona!" A voice chimed from the ceiling. "I'm so glad you decided to come!" Chrona looked up to see a massive web of thin delicate threads that Arachne used instead of the throne. Suspended twelve feet in the air, the witch was far more intimidating than any king. However, she had joy in the glimmer of her eye as she looked down at Chrona.
"Oh, hello Arachne-san." Chrona bowed. "Thank you for letting us stay here." The spider witch hid a smile behind her black folding fan.
"The sooner I got you out of that horrible situation, the better." Arachne sighed. "As they say; the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. I would never leave a fellow witch at the mercy of Shibusen. Especially family."
"Will I be staying here with you?" Chrona knew nothing about her aunt other than stories. She had been in hiding for so long, many thought her to be dead. In a way, this place was the safest place to hide from miesters and witches alike. However, at the mention of spending more time with her niece, the witch frowned.
"Oh no, no, no." She waved a hand dismissively. "You have your own room. A real room, not like the dungeons you're used to."
"O.K." Chrona eyed the crumbling stone of the atrium. Arachne clapped her hands together with a sigh.
"I'd love to chit-chat more dear, but I have business to attend to. Oh Giriko~!" She called in sing song. The disheveled chainsaw man shuffled into the room. "Be a dear and show Chrona to her room." The man quirked an eyebrow at her with a frown.
"Arachne, you feeling alright?" He asked.
"Giriko." Arachne hissed through a smile and narrowed eyes.
"Alright! Alright, I'm goin'." Giriko surrendered. "Geez, come on Corona."
"Ah, Chrona." She corrected.
"Whatever." He shrugged and motioned for her to follow. Chrona wrapped her arms around herself as they made their way to the door.
"Now Giriko," Arachne chided, "this is a new place to her. We're practically strangers. How is she supposed to feel safe with us when you're being so mean." He stopped in his tracks.
"Oh," Giriko, "Ooh! Oh, I get it. Sorry, I'm a little hung over right now."
"How delightful." Arachne rolled her eyes and hid her face behind her folding fan.
"This way." Giriko said. "...wait, no it's left of here." Chrona bit her lip and followed the man out of the room. She could feel Ragnarok threaten to emerge to give the chainsaw a piece of his mind.
"I can do this." Chrona whispered. She didn't like the way Mosquito kept looking at Ragnarok on the drive over. The last thing she needed was him picking fights with people in their home base.
The moon shone bright through the iron bars of Medusa's holding cell, watching over her with a smug grin. Though captured, she was at ease knowing she had full control of the situation. All of this was theater to enforce the uneasy truce both sides needed so desperately needed.
"Was the list of witches names correct?" Medusa asked through her cell door. There was a light jingle of metal on metal as she shifted in her chains.
"Yes." Spirit said blandly. "Though I don't know what you had to gain." She couldn't see him, but she could tell he was angry.
"They annoyed me." Medusa offered dryly. "Is that what you expected me to say? Honestly, you're so thick headed, it's hardly any fun talking to you. Stein's a much better conversationalist."
"Well you're stuck with me, Stein left." Spirit growled. He was clearly trying to delay the inevitable.
"I see, that's too bad. I might have been able to help him had he stayed." Spirit scowled at this.
"Why you-" He opened the door ready to give the witch a piece of his mind. Only to her smiling sweetly with the face of a child. He was so predictable. Even if this body wasn't her's, he couldn't bring himself to strike her.
"Since you're in here would you mind releasing my bindings?" She gave a cute little smile and nodded to the ring of keys attached to his belt.
"If you wanted them off, why didn't you take them off yourself?" Spirit asked suspiciously.
"It's the principal of the thing." Medusa puffed up her tiny chest with pride. "Never bite the hand that feeds you and all that. Now, if you don't mind?" Spirit crouched down and unlocked the violent restraints. He paused, the witch's necklace caught him off guard. A small glass vial with a blushish gray stripe of glue along the side.
-o-flash-o-back-o-
Spirit's time as a student was fraught with danger. Between his maladjusted partner and his control freak of a girlfriend, he had a lot of expectations to live up to. Particuarly when it came to keeping his partner out of trouble. Which was utterly ridiculous if you asked him, it wasn't supposed to be the weapon's job to reign in the miester. During his senior year, he had figured out where Stein's new hiding place was. He slipped into the school lab and crept past twisted flasks and beakers full of boiling liquids.
"Stein-kun?" Spirit whispered into the darkness. "Are you here?" Only the occasional whistle from a machine echoed about the room. "You'll get in trouble if Hyde-sensei finds you down here again." Again he heard nothing." Spirit took this as a chance to poke around the lab. His reluctant partner often had little projects hidden around their teacher's lab. What caught his eye was a little vial about an inch in length and as thin as the tip of a thermometer. A black stopper closed the small container and a beautiful silver chain was hooked onto the dainty charm. He held the small vial in his fingers and touched the stopper.
"What are you doing senpai?" Stein asked over spirit's shoulder. The scythe jumped, dropping the vial in the process. It fell to the floor with a small 'tink'. Stein stooped to pick up the necklace and saw a crack now ran down the side. The pale boy turned slowly. "Senpai~" He said darkly. "Is there a reason you broke the project I spent months on?"
Spirit stumbled backward. Despite his miester's age, the young scientist had quite a temper. Were it not for his morals, Spirit was sure the boy would've gone on a dissection rampage.
"Hold on, I can fix it!" He grabbed the nearest bottle of goo and clumsily used it to patch the crack.
"It'll dry blue, but I guess it's fine." He gingerly took the chain. "I hope it still works."
"Why'd you make something like this?" Spirit asked, "I never took you for an inorganic guy." Stien looked the ground.
"I wanted a challenge." He shrugged. "Why were you looking for me?" That's right, he had to report back to Shinigami-sama.
"We have a mission in Salem."
-o-flash-o-back-o-end-o-
"It's a soul vile if you're wondering." Medusa grumbled. "Now would you let go of it, it's very fragile." Spirit snapped out of his nostalgia. There was no doubt about it, that was the same vial that went missing after their mission in Salem. The mission that left Stein's soul in shreds. It took Hyde a week to get Stein into a stable state, but he was never the same afterwards. Sometimes it seemed like the only thing keeping him together were the sutures Hyde used to piece Stein's soul back together.
"Where did you get that?"
"It was a gift from a friend." She said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Before I was a powerful witch I needed a little help hiding from people like you. Now it's just a good luck charm."
"You're lying." Spirit hissed. This woman was the reason Stein went mad and had to leave Shibusen. She had to be. But, did their connection go back further than this past year?
"If you insist." Medusa shrugged. "I'd say it's worked so far. I trust you found the brew. The real one."
"Yes, right where you said it would be." Spirit agreed. "What do you hope to gain from this?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Medusa asked innocently. "I want a deal with Lord Death. I've shown that my sources are accurate and I'm willing to play 'fair' with you. I will trade Arachne's location in exchange for a favor."
Chrona's new room was just like she was promised. A large canopy bed was the main focal point of the room, with a chest against the foot of the bed. There were more drawers in the dresser than she had ever seen. While the decorations were more sleek and masculine, she appreciated the gesture. It just didn't feel like her room.
"This place feels weird." Chrona rolled up the comforter and tried her best to make a plush corner of the bed. All the decorative pillows in the world wouldn't make up for how vulnerable she felt having the bed in the center of the room. "It's been a while since I felt alone." Her sigh irked her weapon.
"And what am I, chopped liver!" Ragnarok shouted. "It's because I'm made of blood isn't it? Well can a not-person do this?" He pulled at his miester's hair in frustration.
"I'm sorry!" Chrona fought off his hands, threading her fingers through his to pry them away from her roots. Of course, he could always just make more hands.
"You better be!"
"That's not what I meant! I said it wrong!" She swatted at him, but he dodged her easily. "Please stop!" He slowly relented, observing her like a judge.
"Alright then, what did you mean?" He crossed his pudgy arms.
"Well, recently we had a lot of friends." Chrona said. "Now it's just us again and it feels different from when we knew no one." Deep down she knew he was right, no matter what happened Ragnarok was always dragged into whatever mess she was stuck in. It was part of the reason he always picked on her, they couldn't escape each other. He was only nice to her friends because she asked him too.
"Well it's just as well." Ragnarok said. "You don't need to hang around with people that run head first towards madness. You'll make plenty of new friends once Arachne's used to having us around." He was trying to make her feel better, but the way he said it bothered her. It was the fact that he didn't seem to have any plans for himself. Something told her if she questioned him on it, it's just start another fight and it was getting late. Instead, she did her best to show she appreciated he was worried about her.
"Thank you." She sunk into the soft blue blanket and turned away from the light.
"G'night Chrona." Ragnarok sighed. "Now get some sleep."
Normally when students were called into Shinigami-sama's office, it was in pairs. After all, in many cases, their success was dependent on each other's. This time Maka had been called alone.
"Hey, hey Maka!" Shinigami-sama greeted. "I hope you don't mind me calling on such short notice."
"No, it's fine." Maka grumbled.
"Something wrong?" The shinigami comically tilted his head to one side.. Maka looked down, ashamed.
"I'm sorry. Something happened before I got here is all." The shinigami remained silent. "It's just- I tried to help Kid and he blew up at me! All I did, was ask if something was wrong and he totally freaked out!" He also implied that she was inadequate to fix the problems that were going on, which stung more than she'd like to admit. Standing next to immortal beings made one feel small, but she couldn't overcompensate for that feeling with bravado the way Black Star did. The best she could do was, well, her best and lately that didn't seem to be cutting it anymore.
"Kid has always been a handful to deal with." Shingami-sama agreed. "He always tries to put everything on his shoulders. More so then most kids his age." Maka couldn't shake the feeling he was referring to her. "But," she looked up, "he's improved more in the past three months then he has in eight years. I'm sure, given time, he'll find someone to lean on other than himself. I hope you could be that person."
"I'll try my best!" Maka beamed with pride, how could she forget, her wavelength had a positive effect on people. There was just one thing about what he said that bothered her, but she couldn't put her finger on it. More importantly. "I need to tell you about the mission, in Russia-" That strange clown being that had said his name, a creature that could possess someone because it had no soul. If there was more of them, the other students could be in danger. Heaven forbid one of them tried to attach to Tsubaki or Chrona; the result could be disastrous.
"That's right, I asked you here to tell you something." Shinigami-sama bopped himself on the head with an oversized hand. "I don't want you taking on any missions for a while. Shibusen in on the verge of war. To prevent it, you and other top students will be sent to investigate the organization Arachnophobia. You need to rest up as much as you can before the operation."
"But Shinigami-"
"See you tomorrow Maka." Shinigami-sama's door opened, waiting for her to walk through. "Rest well." The scythe miester grudgingly walked out of the death room.