Everyone was eager to get off the ship the moment it had landed. Partly because of the final battle to come, mostly because the ship was full to capacity. When they finally congregated outside, no longer standing shoulder to shoulder, there was nothing. Endless white met their eyes, oddly serene considering the circumstances. The first squad moved forward. A wave of madness radiated throughout the moon. Stein held out his arm to halt the group's advance and took a few cautious steps forward to test the area. In an instant a hose shot out of the ground and coiled around his legs. He jumped in time to avoid the strike.
"We've been ambushed!" Stein warned. Clowns crawled out of craters and begun to attack the recruits that arrived with the Death Scythes. Stein blocked a drop kick from an armless clown. Brilliant yellow hair concealed her eyes, the bottom half of her legs razor sharp stingers.
"He who dares enter Claudia's domain," it spoke through sharp teeth, "shall face the wrath of the Kishen." Stein prepared to attack with a Soul Menace, but the yellow and black clown anticipated it and jumped out of reach.
Maka sighed and gently brushed Soul's hands off her shoulders. They had pinpointed an area of Italy where the madness seemed to spike. However, Maka couldn't find Chrona's wavelength. It was almost like she had soul protection up.
"There are too many people, I can't sense her." Truth be told, she had lost touch with Chrona's wavelength through the ever growing wall of madness. Maka wanted to pass her own judgment on her. If nothing else, to see if things were really as bad as they seemed.
"We'll find her Maka," Tsubaki said, "there's only so many places she could be."
"Sure, we'll just start wandering around;" Soul said, "'Excuse me have you happened to see a demon sword anywhere?'"
"You're not helping Soul." Kim groaned. Black Star clapped his hands.
"O.K. Maka, time for a crash course in the way of the assasin." He declared.
"What about her Soul perception?" Ox asked.
"Silence non-believer! I know what I'm doing." He pointed at everyone. "Now turn away, this is an exclusive lesson! Except you Tsubaki, you know this already." He turned to Maka. "Now I want you to close your eyes and focus, not on souls, but what I'm about to tell you." He whispered his next instruction into her ear. "The assassin's second rule. Tune into your target; predict his thoughts and actions." Maka gave him a confused look.
"What about the first rule?" She asked at normal volume.
"Ah! That's not important right now." Black Star waved off her question, then frowned. "Now close your eyes and focus; focus is key. If she knew she was in danger, where would she go?" Maka took a deep breath. Crona wouldn't run off to someplace unfamiliar. She go someplace dark, secluded; a place where she could keep an eye on the entrance. It was difficult, Maka only knew a few places from the last time she had come to Florence. Then it hit her, the last time she was in Florence she had met Chrona for the first time.
"We have to check the Basilica." Maka said. "If she's still here, that's where she'd go." The gang set off toward the church.
Noah and Gopher had been a few yards away from where the ambush had taken place. All it took was a few steps to separate themselves from the huge battle that had begun.
"Well, well, well; If it isn't two-face and his monster, or would it be seven face?" A dual tones voice chuckled. "I hadn't expected to see you again." Half of the man's face was enveloped in fire. Gopher's frown instantly deepened.
"Justin?" She murmured.
"In the flesh;" Justin cackled, "White Rabbit, make quick work of her. I'll take care of 'Eibon'." The priest had long since fused with his clown partner to serve the Kishen. He tried to end the battle quickly with a simple guillotine trap, but Noah was like a rat and broke free before the blade could reach him. A voice from on high voice rang in Justin's head, telling him what to do. Just as Noah opened the book, Justin launched a blade at the forming monster. "It will take more than a few cheap tricks to obtain Kishen-sama."
"I don't have time for this!" Noah spat. A few yards away Gopher battle with the White Rabbit clown. She wanted to help Noah, but every time she begun to charge a blast the clown would dissipate and reappear elsewhere. It was as if it could tell when she was going to attack. A chuckle from behind her startled her; she whipped around, soul wings drawn. A throwing knife fell into two pieces at her feet. The clown was inches away from her face, a sick grin splayed across its face.
"What a beautiful soul you have."
Chrona stared at the stained glass of the church. Soon the world would be back in order, when this happened there would be no place for her. She would undoubtedly die, but she didn't want to now. Her gaze drifted to the white roses on the table. She wanted to continue to feel and discover all the things her mother kept from her. But what of Lord Death, what of the limit on her life; what could she do if they were still around?
"Chrona!" She turned to see a girl in the door way of the church.
"Who are you?" The girl seemed familiar, yet shocked by her answer.
"Come on, you know me." Did she? "You don't have to stay here. I can help you." Wait, a name did come to mind.
"Maka..." Yes that seemed right, even though everything else felt so very wrong; a faint brush of her old life and the corruption that had poisoned it from within.
"Yes!" The girl declared. "I knew you'd recognized me. Shinigami-sama has his doubts, but I'm sure we can clear that up fast." No! That was a lie, he wanted her dead. "Come back to Shibusen with us. I'll make sure no one hurts you again."
"I can't." She didn't belong there, in the old world that was returning. She was obsolete, doomed to fade away and disappear.
"But why?" She didn't want to leave. "You got along with everyone and everything! You were on your way to becoming a real student like us." That path was closed off to her now.
"Don't you get it?" She grimaced. "I killed my own mother, the only thing left that tied me to that time. What's done is done." The size of her soul was building again, either she or Ragnarok would suffer. "It doesn't matter that I was a tool trying to break free. Lord Death wants to get rid of me."
"Y-you killed Medusa?" Maka trembled.
"I couldn't even dream how free I would feel. I was so scared of what would happen when no one needed me." Chrona frowned. "What I did was wrong, I know that. People who do bad things get punished... people who help people do bad things get punished. That is the way your world works. I can't live in a world like that." But she wanted to live!
Maka took a step backward. Ragnarok's soul was no longer large enough to conceal Chrona's wavelength. The sides of his soul tore before her eyes. Jagged wings emerged through the tear. Chrona screamed in pain.
Rganarok's soul, something that once was so oppressive, now dug into and clinged for dear life. So fearful of disappearing and too weak to fight what was happening. A sickening deja vu of seeing the world ravaged by war amongst the gods, drowning in suffering and waiting for hope to return.
She needed the Kishen's soul to stop this. Destroy the old world and piece back together Ragnarok's soul outside of her self. Wipe everything clean and start from nothingness. Make things the way they should have been.
"Chrona!" Maka cried. "Chrona are you alright?" She wanted to rush to her side. Chrona had been eerily still after the tear.
"I don't remember you." Chrona finally said. "But I don't want to hurt you." She walked past her.
"Chrona, no." Maka reached out and touched Chrona's shoulder. Maka forgot how the girl's body rejected contact with an antimagic wavelength when they met, this time the reaction was more violent. Thorns erupted from the shadows and pushed Maka away.
"Don't touch me!" Crona hissed. The wings of her soul were lined with thorns as she extended them to their full length. "I have to go now."
"Y-you don't have to. We're here for you Chrona, we can help you. If you'd only let us-"
"I don't need your help." Chrona said. "Goodbye Maka."
Kid had tried to find the Kishen, but his path out of the fray was block by a clown. A woman bare, save for a bat like cloak, blocked all his exits with a ring of fire.
"I'm not going to let a naughty boy like you hurt Onii-san!" The clown scolded.
"Who are you?" Kid demanded.
"So bold!" She blushed. "I'll have you know it's inappropriate to ask women such questions. We are the children of Claudia. Now that our brother's free, we won't let you have him." Kid shot the female clown repeatedly, but she dodged with ease. Stein turned briefly from his tangle with the two clowns to notice the clown Moonlight overhead and the thin fissures it had placed on everyone's souls.
"Kid, our attacks are being predicted by that clown. Take it down!" Moonlight was too high above the battle field for Stein's to reach.
"Why don't you just reverse the fissures?" Spirit asked.
"It would be like shocking a lake. Everyone it's tuned into would be effected. We just need to jar its concentration."
The female clown went to kick Kid, he rolled to the right and charged his soul cannons.
"SOUL RESONANCE!" Kid and his weapons cried. Moonlight was not nimble enough to dodge; a few clowns got caught in the blast as well. When the smoke cleared the three clowns as lay motionless and charred. Finally Shibusen had the upper hand, clowns were being defeated left and right. Until a hand grabbed Kid's leg.
"I was rather fond of that outfit." The female clown said. Slowly the charred flesh sluffed off, and new tissue grew in it's place. "You shouldn't let your lust get the better of you." The clowns were regenerating.
Noah had been reduced to fighting Justin with his fists, which to his credit, was rather effective. Justin wasn't agile in the least when he was using his weapon abilities. He did manage to get a fairly deep cut on his arm from the guillotine.
"I should have died in that church." Justin hissed. "At least then I would have died a whole person. But no, you had to save me, made me question why I was the one who got to survive out of all those innocent men, me. Well now I know."
"What are you talking about?" Noah demanded.
"My purpose!" Justin cackled. "I'll spread madness across the world and open eyes of those still trapped in their failed 'reality'."
"I don't care what you do," Noah growled, "as long as I get the Kishen."
"And therein lies the problem." A blade jumped up at Noah from the dirt. "It's a shame really, you would have been a great asset to us." Noah dodged and swiftly kicked Justin in the head.
"I'm no one's puppet!" The kick sent Justin a good three yards back. After which he didn't move. "I'm not." He mumbled, then turned to collect Gopher.
Gopher was not too far off, her body littered with small nicks and cuts from White Rabbit's throwing knives. She blocked the assault the best she could with her soul wings. However, the clown was far from finished. It would heal after each strike.
"Come on!" Noah demanded. "We don't have time for time!"
"I'm sorry Noah-sama!" She glanced at him."Nothing I do seems to-" She saw Justin raise an arm loaded with blades. "Noah-sama, behind you!" She leapt and shoved the man out of the way. She staggered and glared at Justin, her face pinched into a tearful frown.
"Idiot." She scowled. She sent loose a soul wing and effectively cut Justin in half. Justin smiled sadly, a small piece of the world had righted itself.
"What the hell was that for!?" Noah shouted. "I can care for myself, I don't need some half-pint pushing me around." Noah tapered off at the end when Gopher didn't start begging for forgiveness. "Hey-" she pitched forward and fell on the ground. Two of Justin's blades had caught her, one down her back and another diagonally along her chest. Yet another piece in the chaos.
Moonlight had tried to retaliate to Kid's attack, but it sliced the female clown on accident. One of the mechanics rushed out through the countless fights.
"Kid!"
"What?" Kid asked. He leapt from the dying flames and away from the female clown's grasp.
"We have received orders for you to return to the airship immediately." The mechanic said.
"Your father wishes to speak with you."
"Now? Have you seen this mess!?" He shot two more clowns while he shouted. "I can't leave now."
"Listen to your father and return to the airship." Stein shouted across the battlefield.
"You want me to fall back as well?" Kid scowled, there was no time to argue. One wrong move and the enemies would regenerate faster than they could handle.
"The Death Scythes can take care of the situation for a while, until you're done talking with Shinigami-sama." Stien said. "Now go."
"If there's time for me to talk with my father, then there's time to find the Kishen." Kid said. He ducked and weaved to some cover. Just long enough to catch his breath and look for an opening.
"Sir, no. My orders were to bring you back to the airship." The mechanic insisted. "You must come with me." They didn't have much time before the Kishen awoke. At the rate they were going, they couldn't afford to lose man power.
"I'm not going." He was no longer a child, he didn't trust his father's judgment anymore.
"But sir!" Kid summoned Beelzebub and hurtled through the distracted clowns and hopefully to the Kishen.