Wordlessly, Maka finds herself pushing past Blackstar despite the little force the guard uses to push her back. Instead of Ox answering, it's Maka answering, her chest tight and her voice wavering as she questions, "Where are they?"

The guard averts his eyes under her gaze, nervously looking over his shoulder with a tremble in his shoulders. "They're down at the path by the corn fields- we need0"

Maka doesn't bother to stay for the answer. Despite the shout she hears from Stein and the twin gasps from her parents, Maka is racing down the hall where the guard had come from with her breath caught in her throat.

If Kid was there, then by default, Soul had to be close by.

In a second flat, Blackstar was on her trail, shouting to unlistening ears.

"Princess Maka! Please- wait!"

With the small advantage Maka has on the other guards, given the fact that she doesn't have bulky armor weighing her down, she finds herself holding a good few feet on the guards who follow after her with shouts.

"Princess Maka- your highness- you have to stay in the castle!"

"Your highness, please!"

"Where do you think youre going, Maka!"

She runs through the halls of the castle she's called her home- legs carrying her as fast as they can as she drowns out the sounds of the guards chasing after her.

Soul.

He had to be okay, right?

The moment hse breaks free from the castle she's bathed in the warm sunlight of the day- her nose and fingers greeted with the bitter cool November air. She pauses for a moment, taken back by the sudden change in scenery.

Where was she supposed to go? She'd only been out of the castle a handful of times, where was she supposed to go?

Frozen with her heart lurching up in her throat, she heard the footsteps behind her draw closer and closer. Instead of feeling hands draw her back into the castle urgently- she watched with wide eyes as both Stein and Blackstar ran ahead of her, already breaking into sprints down a path with their hands ready to wield their swords.

She doesnt think as she follows after them, urging her body to keep up despite the pain she felt in her lungs with every breath.

There had to be a better ending to the story than this.


Carefully, Maka lowered herself onto the sheets beside Soul. Her hands trembled against her sheets, her arms feeling weaker than they ever had before. She couldn't remember a time in her life where she'd slipped into bed with someone else.

Her guards eyes followed her carefully, creasing as he smiled. It was an all too fond look- a look Maka had never been on the receiving end of before. "What's that look for?" She'd asked as her cheek landed onto her satin pillow. She knew the answer she found, but hearing it spoken aloud- having it being brought to existence- was all the better.

"I don't know," Soul answered, shifting onto his side comfortably. "You're just… You're pretty."

"I'm pretty?" She'd raised an eyebrow, wiggling it all while Soul rolled his eyes, huffing.

"As if you didn't already know that," her guard joked as his eyes fluttered shut. With only the moonlight shining through the balcony erving as their light source, Maka watched the way Soul's eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks, flushed in the blue tinted light.

Maka doesn't comment on the joke as she reaches across the sheets and presses a thumb into Soul's cheekbone softly. The action alone has her guard flinching, his eyes flickering open.

"Sorry," she'd muttered, swiping her thumb down Soul's cheek softly, "Couldn't help myself."

"Your self-control just keeps slipping, doesn't it, Princess?"

A low rumble of a chuckle leaves his chest as Soul reaches across the bed, dropping his hand against her hip. His thumb pressed into her hip bone, his palm cradling her side carefully. The touch has butterflies erupting in her chest, and suddenly, she's wishing to chase after her guards lips again.

"It doesn't seem you mind, though." With her free hand, she motions toward the cloak she'd taken off her guard which had been tossed onto the floor beside them. Soul's eyes follow the movement slightly, but in a second's passing, he seems to understand what she's pointing out.

"Oh, shut up," he says all too fondly. "You're persuasive when you want to be."

"I only had to ask you once tonight to stay."

"Persuasive enough."

Soul's grip tightened against her hip as he scootches across the bed so they're only an inch away from each other. With a shaky sigh, Maka had reached out, letting her free hand rest against Soul's chest.

Through tired vision, she'd stared at the way her hand looked sprawled against the white undershirt her guard wore- her fingers just an inch away from his bare neck where tanned skin had poked through. With her eyes fluttering shut, she let both of her hands land on either side of Soul's collar loosely.

"Could stay like this forever," She'd muttered against Soul's chest.

"Yeah?" Her guard chuckled from above her softly. "I could too."


It didn't take them long to find the path that led to the fields. Even in the distance as they ran, Maka could make out the tall field of grass that led to the cornfields. Surely, the moment they'd made it onto the broken and beaten down path that ended right before the old grass, they caught sight of a handful of people standing in chaos.

Amongst them, Maka caught sight of the raven-haired guard she'd first met on the dance floor just twenty four hours ago. He sat limply on the gravel path with his back pressed against one of the Eibon guards- both his neck and arm being propped by said guard.

The closer they approached, the quicker Maka realized the damage Kid had endured.

His formal attire had been both dirtied and soaked with dark blood. His right arm, which was being cradled carefully by the guard holding him up, had been entirely cut open- a gory sight that had Maka tripping over her feet until Blackstar caught her and righted her. The flesh of his skin had been torn to the bone.

Without much thought, Maka found herself gagging- her throat burned as she brought a hand to cover her mouth. She'd never seen such a gory scene before. Even at her party, when they'd walked into the hallway, she'd barely paid attention to the scene, too engrossed in keeping Soul up on his feet so they could leave.

The second the Eibon guard noticed them approaching, he'd lifted his head. He was speaking- moving his mouth rapidly as Kid's eyes fluttered open and shut- but whatever he said didn't exactly catch Maka's attention when her eyes were drawn to the ever-growing pool of blood around the two of them.

It was dark blood- so dark it stained their clothes and armor without shame. If she looked close enough, she could see the reflection of the sun and grass in it- and that alone had her falling further into Blackstar's arms.

"Medic a'nt goin' to s've him," A drunken voice had slurred out, pulling Maka from her frightened state.

Beside Kid stood several other guards- each holding down a woman that Maka had distinctly remembered from the party.

It was the assassin Medusa had tried to sick on her before Stein stepped in.

She was struggling against the guard's grips, her head angled toward Kid as she spat out a wad of dark blood. The gear she'd worn had been torn apart- showing well enough that Kid had put up one hell of a fucking fight against her. In between each open spot of her armor, blood swept through in steady streams. The guards who'd been holding her down were holding clothes to her skin, but with the amount of struggling she'd been doing against their grips, their actions were futile in saving her.

"Try'n to act like a hero, try'n to save your stupid lover- die like a hero, coward!"

Maka couldn't make sense of what the woman was saying- but the moment her wild eyes settled onto hers, she felt Blackstar pulling her back slightly as she thrashed wildly in the hands of the Eibon guards.

"Solomons!" She shouted. Her eyes widened as she slumped back into the gravel and dirt, a hard cough leaving her. Speckles of blood spewed across her cheek as she returned back to her fit of laughter. "Good luck fin'in him!"

Stein was there suddenly- crouching in front of Kid.

"Where is he?"

Even though the guard could barely keep his eyes open- and through there was blood slowly trickling down the sides of his mouth, he'd lifted his eyes to the field.

"Down the field," he'd said, his voice hoarse and timid, "still alive."

Her vision was swaying as she turned toward the field- the field both Stein and Blackstar were already running through.

Despite the shake in her knees, she was following after them, her hands tracing the tips of the tall grass as she did.


The shopkeep had raised their eyes to her, a knowing, yet playful smirk playing on their leathery face. "Did you change your mind on something, young lady?"

SHe nodded contently, her hands tracing over the velvet fabric of the , sitting on the corner of the table, had been the brooch she'd inspected just moments ago; but this time, Soul wasn't by her side.

Her fingers danced around the cool silver carefully.

This was weird, she thought faintly. She'd never gotten a fit for a friend before, especially not like this. When it came to getting Kim things all she had to do was ask a servant; no questions asked. This time, she was picking this gift herself- giving more weight to it.

Would Soul see it that way? Would he understand how much it meant to Maka to get her newly found friend a gift like this?

"This stone is a ruby, right?" Her fingers traced the sword of the brooch timidly. When she'd looked up, the shopkeeper nodded, their eyes creasing with a smile.

"Yes. Are you looking to match it with something?"

"The man I was with," she says suddenly, turning her head to the crowd on her right. Sure enough, over the sea of people, she could see the bright white hair peeking up over them ."You had been him right?"

"I did, I sure did!"

"His cloak is a dark red, would you think the color would match?"

The shopkeeper had reached out carefully, plucking the brooch from the table. "I would think so." The smile their voice held gave virtue enough for Maka to say she'd get it. As they bent under the counter to grab a pouch for it, they asked quietly, "You do know the meaning of Ruby, don't you?"

Of course, she did.

"The gemstone of the sun," she'd said thoughtfully, remembering the hundreds of books that lined her bedroom walls, "It's a symbol of faithfulness and love."

When the man had lifted his head, his eyebrow quirked, Maka felt her stomach drop.

"That guard there must be special to you, I see."

"You could say that."


She heard them before she saw them- the clashing of swords- the shrieking cried of a woman- the strangled gasps of a man.

"Eruka! Eruka, you incompetant fuck!"

There the two stood in the middle of the field, bathed in the glory of the morning sun. Though she could barely make out their silhouettes against the sun, Maka found herself squinting, raising a hand to her brow to get a better view of the two.

They were far- too far to intervene in time- but sure enough, their presence had caught both of their attention.

It was hard to make out their states through the thick grass that stopped at Maka's hips, but from where they stood, neither looked to be in good shape. Even so, the moment her eyes landed on Soul's back- she felt her heart squeeze in her chest. They were both shaking- both drenched in sweat and blood and whatever dirt they had rolled in.

Medusa was the first to notice them, given the way her sword slipped and her head tilted their way.

She'd paused in the field, Blackstar stopping just a foot in front of her as Stein continued his way toward the two of them.

Their presence- the fact that they had taken Medusa off guard- gave Soul the upper hand. He'd brought his blade down harder against hers, forcing her down into the field of grass and right out of their sight.

There was silence- a beat of complete and utter silence-

And then there was a scream so loud it had her jumping forward- right into Blackstar's held up arm. The guard stared directly at her, keeping his eyes far away from the scene as he shook his head at Maka.

The scream rang on, echoing around them in the empty field- a scream of pure terror and anguish. In a swift motions, Soul was standing from the grass, lifting his sword above his shoulders before diving it straight into the grass-

Maka had never seen someone kill in front of her eyes- let alone so viciously- that is what was happening, right? He was killing her-

The sword had come down once- twice- and then a third time-

She saw the blood splatter the once green grass- flinging into the air- painting the sky as it soared back into the grass- watched it slip from the tip of the blade as it swung back into the air with such a vicious intent-

She stood there in the field, shaking, eyes wide as she watched a murder; and Medusa's screams of help didnt fall on deaf ears- not when her bones cracked- not when she scream,ed her acquaintance's name- and surely not when Soul was pulled back under into the grass either.

There are two seconds, two long and painful seconds between Soul being pulled into the grass and the silence that rings.

"Soul-!"

It took another two seconds for Stein to fall into the grass near them- and she found herself agonizingly waiting on her tippy toes against Blackstar's arm for some word- some sigh everyone was okay-

But when Stein stands, he's empty handed, his eyes wide and his mouth open wide-

"Blake!"

There had to be a better ending to the story than this.