"Shinigami-sama!" The someone from the mirror cheered. "The Kishen has fallen!" Lord Death halted his pacing. "The clowns have started to die off, we've finally got the upper hand." One by one, the clowns were reaped, their faux souls curling up like paper. For the first time in hundreds of years, Claudia's magic was fading.
"Finish off the clowns," he ordered, "then call everyone back." With the immediate threat addressed, they needed to regroup. He could see how tired his men were, despite the celebration.
"Yes sir!"
"Finally, there's a light at the end of the tunnel." Shinigami sighed. "I just hope Kid's O.K." Azusa barely nodded in agreement. Despite the report of Asura's death, the level of madness in the world had only dropped minutely. She didn't have the heart to tell him this. It had been too long since Lord Death had something to look forward to.
"You did it Kid!" Liz cheered. "I can't believe you actually did it!"
"That was totally awesome!" Patty giggled. The twin guns jumped for joy in each other's arms.
"And stupid!" Liz tore away from her sister to punch Kid in the arm. "You could have been killed. But you didn't, and he's dead-" Kid held Asura's soul in his hand, his stare vacant. It seemed, without a body, all of Asura's power was trapped in that tiny sphere. The oppressive air in the cave was slowly lifting.
"I totally didn't see that coming!" Patty jumped up and down, reenacting the battle. "You were all GRR! And he was all RAWR! And then you went BOOM! And he was all NOO!" Kid slowly turned. "And then you won! High five!" Calmly, he walked past the excited guns, soul in hand.
"Kid, are you alright?" Liz asked, but he continued to ignore them and left the cave. "I don't think you should be touching that thing for that long." Liz jogged ahead to match his pace.
"Yeah, what's up?" Patty pointed in the opposite direction. "The air ship's that'a way."
"I'm waiting." Kid finally spoke. The two girls looked at each other, equally concerned.
"Well then," Liz said, "let's go wait with the others. Your father's going to give his next orders... Oh no." She followed Kid's stare to the starlit sky. Luminous dust was blown away from them as black wings flapped to a halt.
"Hello again." Chrona dropped inelegantly in front of them.
Though completely dissolved, Noah could still salvage the pieces of the destroys Kishen's body if he could just get to them in time.
"Wait here." Noah whispered. He dropped Gopher onto the ground. She fell in a heap on the floor. Her sudden collision with the ground startled him. He glanced to see her motionless on the floor. "Hey, hey wake up." But she didn't stir, she had lost too much blood. Wrath looked back to the pile of what used to be the Kishen and growled. "You owe me big kid." He picked her up and used a page of Eibon to leave the moon. He'd deal with the aftermath later.
Madness was a funny thing. Kid could tell he was acting different, but it didn't feel as negative as everyone made it seem. He could see everything with clarity, his movements were his own. But the things he had once worried and cared about, didn't seem to matter as much. Death is not something that can be reasoned with or bargained with, it ends all things. In do time, those living would come to understand this as he did.
"You have something I need." Chrona said. She could tell he was far from hostile, though the change in appearance was mildly alarming. Thin strips of black were painted down his lips, his clothes wild and tattered at the end, and the lines in his hair stayed connected. He held out the Kishen soul to her with lifeless eyes.
"If that's your choice." He offered the shuddering ball of power to her.
"Kid," Liz shouted, "what are you doing!?" Kid regarded her with the same indifference as if she were a snail.
"I'm taking your advice." He drawled.
"Kid, this isn't what I meant." Liz sputtered. "That kind of thinking works with OCD or relationship problems, not this!" She gestured wildly. "Chrona's been put on Shinigami's list, we- we can't just hand her the soul of the Kishen, it's against the rules!" Chrona took it into her hands and wondered if something so fragile would be able to help Ragnarok.
"Chrona's not on the list." Kid said. "Better yet, there is no list. Humans shouldn't be at the mercy of one judge, regardless of their intentions."
Ragnarok opened his mouth wide and snapped up Asura's soul. It caught in his throat, slowly getting squeezed down like a rat caught in a serpent. As it plopped into his stomach, Chrona's bloody wings melted and sizzled. His body quivered, steam rising up above and blacking out the sky. One by one, the stars went out, leaving humanity in utter darkness. Chrona held her breath, feeling Ragnarok's soul expand and burn from within. Unable to contain so much power, his soul spit wide open, shaking the moon and Earth down to the core.
For years, Ragnarok had been an oppressive figure in her life. Someone who made her feel small, and forced her to do things she didn't want to do. It was only recently that she had begun to understand that someone as powerful as he might have feared in his own way. He grew up under Medusa's cruel guidance just as she had, but was never granted the chance to be anything other than her tool.
The strongest person she'd ever known was gone.
"I'm sorry." She could breathe freely for the first time, let her spirit expand to its full potential, and he left no trace behind. She was just trying to help, and somehow, she had hurt him beyond repair.
Kid offered his hand to her. The two blond weapons were shouting something. It was all too much to deal with.
"We should go." Kid said.
The mirror in Shinigami's observatory lit up. He was greeted by Stein. Behind the scythe miester, people scrambled with their weapons in confused panic.
"We have a problem." Stein said calmly. "The Kishen's soul is missing, along with Kid." Shinigami stood back in shock. "We have an idea where it is, but I figured you'd want to know what's going on."
"I understand." Shinigami said with controlled breaths. "Tell everyone to fall back. We'll regroup as fast as possible." He turned from the mirror. "Azusa, find Maka and the others. Tell them to return to Shishuben as well."
Noah had Gopher splayed on the altar of the old church. He hastily unbound the first of the makeshift bandages and prepared a solution for her wounds. The noxious fumes caused Gopher to flit in and out of consciousness. He pulled at the frogs of her shirt, which caused the girl to mutter a weak protest.
"Relax," Noah huffed, "there's nothing here I haven't seen before." He pulled off the shirt to get better access to the wound, only to be surprised by the discoloration of her skin. He applied the solution of the gash and the stain. In an instant the magic melded the two edges together making a seamless mend. But the stain remained. He tried a number of salves and potions, but none of them could remove the large blemish. He growled and moved on to the other gashes; when she was well enough, she'd have to soak in a sealant to set the potions. However, he wasn't as concerned about that. Someone, he didn't know who, had laid their hands on her; and she had let them. The moment those cursed eyes opened, he would get answers.
The group stood before Shinigami-sama, and for once, were nervous in his presence. Ever since they returned, the sky was devoid of all light, the streets eerily quiet. Madness was no longer the most present threat, but things were far from normal. The shinigami took a deep breath before speaking.
"What happened?" His voice was dreadfully low.
"Chrona killed Medusa." Maka said, the first to step forward. "I'm not positive, but I think she fed her mother's soul to Ragnarok. She kept talking about how she wouldn't survive if things went back to the way they were." Chrona's transformation had caught Maka off-guard. If only she'd had more faith in her friends, she could have been more prepared. Or at the very least, powered through to dispell the madness before things had gotten to this point.
"So she anticipated your arrival?" Lord Death sighed.
"Not exactly," Maka said, "she didn't remember me. Her soul... When she left, she wasn't relying on Ragnarok to fly. It was like mine, but definitely a witch's soul."
"Kid changed too." Patty sniffled. "We went to fight the Kishen, and he kept talking to himself, then he lost it and we couldn't resonate with him anymore. I don't know what happened."
"Kid isn't one to do something for no reason." Soul said. "Something had to have set him off. Being that close to the Kishen... It's like your worst fears come to life."
"Wait," Liz remembered, "the Kishen said that Kid was locked away in Shibusen before Kid freaked out." She looked at Lord Death. "But that wasn't true, was it?" Shinigami searched for the best answer. He had tried for so long to hide what happened long ago. The last thing he wanted was for Kid's friends, of all people, to know. If what they said was true, it was already too late.
"There was a time, when Kid and Asura's roles were reversed." Shinigami sighed. "After Asura ate his weapon, I realized the mistake we'd made."
As a shinigami, Mortis was well aware of the state of every mirror in the school. So, when the mirror in the dungeon broke, he immediately scanned for the soul of the perpetrator. He was shocked to find the soul of a shinigami was responsible for the damage. He immediately ordered that the child be brought before him.
"Why is he hiding?" He asked Spirit who had the child clinging to his leg.
"Children don't speak a foreign language Lord Death, you could ask him yourself." Spirit shrugged. The shinigami sighed and crouched to Kid's level.
"...hey, err... what's your name?" He asked. Kid buried his face into Spirit's leg. "...Is your hand alright?" Mortis looked up at Spirit. "Seriously, what's wrong with him?" Spirit pried Kid from his leg and squatted to talk with him.
"It's not nice to ignore people." He said with a firm, yet gentle voice. "Could you please answer the nice man." Kid looked away from the reaper.
"He's not a nice man! He's a very bad man. He-He kills people and now he's going to- to-" Kid started to cry again. Mortis stood, his brow furrowed under his mask.
"We found him in her palace." Spirit said. "He has the lines of sanzu too." He picked Kid up so he could bury his face in Spirit's shoulder and feel more secure. "I'm no genealogist, but if you're the only being that has them..."
"BUT I NEVER-" He stopped and lowered his voice. "I never did anything that would result in... you know."
"Well obviously you did."
"I didn't! He's not- can not be mine." Kid hid the white stripes from prying eyes. "He doesn't even like me." The energy was unmistakable though. It was weak, but he had the same magic the old death god had radiating from his artificial soul.
"You aren't seriously thinking of throwing him back down there?" Spirit said, with a small child gripping his shirt. "He hadn't been a danger to anybody. What harm could a seven year old cause?"
"Well if you're so worried about him," Mortis said, "you take care of him!" Why on earth did Iroha think making someone like him was a good idea? The sway of magic was hard enough for him to resist, to put a child through it seemed cruel.
"I can't, I have Maka to care for as is. Yumi would have my head if I showed up with some random kid." Spirit sighed.
"I'm not good with kids." Mortis could feel the child glare at him. "I never have been, they run the other way every time they see me."
"You could change that. You'd have to actually try." Spirit swiveled so Kid could see the door. "Come on, you want to go see something else?"
"Yes-" Kid squeaked. Shinigami didn't dare let Kid outside until he was certain of his next course of action. Two death gods existing at the same time should be impossible. If he wasn't a shinigami, then that meant witches were trying to replace death with something else.
Mortis had finally decided to take care of him as his own and even went as far to get him a home to raise him in. Even still, only a few people knew about how Kid came to live with him and he planned to keep it that way. Though it surprised him that Kid had never associated the 'bad man' with the more child friendly shinigami that ran Shibusen.
"Everyone," Shinigami addressed the group of tired children, "Thank you for all your hard work. Please, let the adults handle this and get some much needed rest." One by one the teens filed out. "Except you Black Star, I need a word with you;" Tsubaki paused, "alone." She turned to her partner and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
"Good luck." She whispered. Once everyone left Black Star turned to the shinigami.
"What's up?" He said loftily. He didn't want to let on that his nerves threatened to bubble to the surface. It was obvious that the Death God was angered by the turn of events. Then again, everyone was frustrated. He'd just prefer to be out of the room when the man snapped.
"I owe you an apology."
"Look sir I-" Black Star stopped short of his mini speech. "What?"
"You were right about Kid's state before leaving for the moon. He may have been fine had he stayed behind. People like me sometimes forget those younger, can be just as powerful." Black Star, for once, didn't know what to say. "No doubt, you've inherited your mother's abilities along with your father's."
"Sir-"
"That isn't a bad thing. Your father would use your mother's prophecies to protect his people for many years, he was a brilliant leader. No doubt, you will be one day as well." Shinigami turned to face the assassin. "It is my job to make sure all of my students achieve their maximum potential. I hope you will forgive me for disregarding your judgment."
"I do." He bowed. "Thank you for your praise." Shinigami returned it with a shallower bow.
"You may leave now, if you wish." Black Star nodded and quickly left. Under normal circumstances he would have boasted until his face turned blue. But this praise came at a price and he accepted it with a heavy heart. The road to the heavens was filled with the wilted dreams of those who surrounded him.
Family Tree: Kid
Hades (The youngest of 3 brothers) who with Persephone had: Aeron (Refused to live in the underworld) who then had two boys: Thantos (The Hier to the Underworld) and Dante (Never developed powers) who had: Mortis (aka Shinigami-sama) who raised Kid.
Family Tree: Crona
Pandora (Released Khonsus) had one daughter: Ophilia (Barely escaped a revolution) she never married, but had: Lillian (Fought for Thantos in war only to be betrayed) her daughters escaped the Salem Trails: Arachnae (Once married, mother to Ragnarok) and Medusa (Barely considered a witch) who had: Crona (First Sekaigami since Iroha).