Maka was sitting in a movie theater. The lights had darkened before she could get up to check out the concession stand. A staticy hum overhead lit up the screen with blurry images. Soft cooes and familiar voices grew to form words she recognized and places she'd seen.

That must be why her abdomen stopped hurting.

This was it.

Soul wouldn't have that hard a time finding a new meister, but she had hoped to get him to the rank of death scythe before doing something as stupid as getting distracted in a fight. There was something oddly comforting getting to hear every word of the stories her father read to her again. His hair used to be so long. Her mother was missing a lot from these early years she noted with a twinge of bitterness. It wasn't until Maka was able to help around the house that they had been able to form a kinder relationship. Her mother never was terribly good with small children.

Meeting Soul for the first time, she'd always thought she had been the nervous one. Knowing him better now, she could notice him scratching at the piano keys when he realized someone heard him play. They always made quick work of kishen-eggs, it was the other opponents she'd been shaky on. It was her fault she hadn't recognized Blair's soul wasn't a witch's soul. She'd been too proud to ask after seeing how small it was, too anxious to succeed to double check the mission statement.

All the make up assignments, the petty arguments, the grudges she'd held when on display felt so small now. Even the battle with the demon sword. If she had just listened to Soul, maybe he wouldn't have gotten hurt. She never apologized to him for that. Instead, she kept insisting they barrel ahead and take loftier missions. It left her bleeding in the snow.

"Ticket please?" A crane pecked at her arm, a coin purse dangling around it's neck. Almost playfully, it nudged her again. Maka didn't have anything in her pockets. Maka looked back up at the screen. What was it that scared off a werewolf of all things? "No ticket, no seat."

"Wait." Just a few seconds longer, if she could just make out a silhouette. Something other than the scalding electricity that tried to keep her tethered.

The house lights came up. Maka winced as light and sound and touch all rushed in. There wasn't a crane pecking at her arm, it was an IV. There were books stacked on her bedside. Maybe she actually had heard her father after all.

"Maka, sweetheart!" Her mother was pushing a bright red light on a remote. She should have been in the heart of Sweden right now.

"Mama?" She tried to sit up and winced. Tight and warm, her stomach hollered in protest at the thought of her doing anything. "What are you doing here? I'm fine."

"Fine? You're white as a sheet." She couldn't help herself from nitpicking. Still, it was nice to see her mother. "Soul told me what happened, I came right away."

"He shouldn't have done that." Maka grumbled. The last thing she wanted to be was an imposition on her mother. There was a limited amount of time off she could take. Coming over something like this would cut into their time at Christmas.

"Medusa-san also happened to inform me of the number of other times you ended up in her office." Her mother scanned her face for signs of deception. "Maka!"

"I'm not going to bother you with every bump and scrape that comes along with being a meister." Maka said sheepishly.

"Stitches are a big deal." Kami sat on the edge of the bed and pulled Maka's good hand into her own. They were so much warmer than hers and she could see the shift in skin tone. She really had lost a lot of blood. "So is running into witches, and failing your first attempt to get your second star." She squeezed Maka's hand. "You can text me things about school other than 'fine'. I'm just glad you're okay." It was one thing to celebrate acing exams and tournaments, but Maka never wanted to burden her mother with problems neither of them could solve. Those conversations only ever left her more stressed than before. Having her here in person was another story.

"Did he mention what saved me?" Her mother's face matched her hand.

"I... Well I'm not sure if saved is quite the right word for it. If that is the case, I may owe your father an apology." If there was anything Kami hated more than her father, it was admitting she was wrong. "I'm just glad Soul was able to get you back safely. As soon as you're up for it we need to talk to Shinigami-sama. He'll know better why that thing found you."

Black Star's shoulder hurt, but not as much as his ears. He hadn't been able to hide the blood on his clothes well enough. Anyone looking at his torn up shoulder could see a demon blade had done it, no matter how many times he argued the contrary. It was him against the whole family this time as multiple worried voices shouted to be heard over one another. There was only so much criticism he could take.

"I have tried being kind." Venus was a broiling spring, still on the surface but ready to inflict pain. "I tell you not to go outside without permission, to always have someone with you and look what happened." She jammed the face her pipe into his healing wound. "You had no one there present that can speak on your behalf! If Lord Death asks for a name, I have nothing I can tell him to protect you."

"I didn't hurt anyone!" A doubly humiliating confession given he had tried to hunt down the Uncanny Sword, but he was aiming to get out of trouble not into more of it.

"Normal people can't tell the difference between one of us and one of them." She had tried burning the symbol of the Star Clan into the hearts of civilians, but it still carried the muddled memory of her brother's carnage. There was far more work to be done before any of the Western branch could be seen in the light of day.

"She could." He insisted. "She had the glowy, soul seeing eyes like Elaine does. And they weren't normal people, I mean who tries to be a hunter with a feathery, fragile soul like that anyway?" A hush fell over the room. "They would have died if I hadn't stepped in. Isn't helping the DWMA what we're supposed to be doing?"

"Feathery?" Her anger evaporated like the last burning ember in her pipe.

"Yeah, like a lil baby chick or-" The fear in her eyes made him stop digging his own grave. Calling someone's soul fragile was vague, it could be implied just by the way a person held themselves or talked. People talked about what souls looked like all the time, they never talked about how they felt. Clearly, he had crossed some unspoken line. "I just wanted to make sure she was okay."

"Yes, and I suppose she saw you after she was injured?" Rather than tell another bad lie he looked at the ground. "It couldn't possibly be that she noticed something too weak to control his own impulses and considered changing targets mid combat?" She turned from him and motioned to ready the mirror. "Contact Lord Death. Let him know the operative they ran into was not, nor ever will be, on active duty. I will discuss the details on what reparations should be made shortly." Then added almost as an afterthought. "And ask if the student is 'okay'." She stole away to her office like a bat back into hell.

"Why did you let her do that?" He reeled on his heels toward his older cousins who had watched him stripped of what little rank he had with little protest. It wasn't fair, he hadn't even done anything that wrong. It was Genbu that dared to take a step toward him.

"It's... It's just too familiar. She'll change her mind, you'll see." Black Star avoided his touch.

"Cassandra had a fragile soul too." Sieryu said with a gravity that sucked the air out of the room. She had been the closest to his parents. He had seen in pictures what she looked like before getting turned into a draconic horde of weapons and armor to protect them. "He became obsessed with claiming her power for himself. None of us want that to happen again."

"That's not what happened." He didn't want to hear it anymore. They were just going to come up with any excuse as to why he was the one in the wrong. Leaving the room, he ignored the questions of those who had yet to figure out he was in trouble. Whether it was a 'good' day or not, he didn't care at this point. He needed to talk to someone that wouldn't yell at him.

Deep under the compound were rows of metal doors. Solitary rooms for those who had yet to cope with the hunger corruption left in it's wake. In the innermost depths, bound in talismans and chains, lay his father. He couldn't see his face, or touch him through the bars, but he could at least feel his presence.

"Dad?" A sharp intake of breath told him he was awake. Weak as his sixth sense was, he could only pretend a protective force tried to reach out past the bindings. "I really messed up this time." In the silence he felt the weight of it hit him. He shouldn't have gone outside. That weapon had treated him like a monster. Even if compared to his older cousins he was mostly human, that clearly didn't matter to the DWMA weapons who might as well be humans. "I thought if I brought back a kishen-egg Aunt Venus would finally see I'm ready for missions, but I couldn't do it. The one I was chasing kept changing its smell and everything. It hijacked at least two people before I lost its trail." He didn't have the crazy gifts other assassins did, just intuition and a few mildly heightened senses. "I... I know it's bad, because it got people bringing up mom." The chains groaned, a raspy rush of air came out, but no words. He would hate how they talked about her now. Aunt Venus promised years ago to find a cure, and all they'd done was keep him chained down here while they rewrote history in his own home. "You'd be proud of me, I saved some DWMA kid from taking on more than they could handle." He rested against the bars, listening to his father's breathing even out. "I'm kind of a hero." It'd be nice if at least someone thought of him that way.

Maka had thrown on some easy to wear clothes and hobbled her way down to Shinigami-sama's office. Healing could wait if something this dire had her mother fiddling with the buttons on her sleeves. As soon as they got there, Soul and her father were waiting. She was able to give him at least a nod of acknowledgement before her father nearly broke her spine latching onto her while she was still unsteady on her feet.

"Papa!" They were in the presence of a god after all, that called for some form of decorum. It didn't matter that he was the goofy grim reaper's right hand, there were rules and protocols that must be followed.

"Good to see you on your feet." Shinigami-sama said with an uncanny cheeriness. He tried his best not to scare his students, even if the situation itself was scary. "The good news is, she's not on their list of targets." Her parents breathed a sigh of relief, even Soul had been on edge.

"Who's list?" She asked. Shinigami leaned back, tsking at the adults in the room for keeping her in the dark for so long.

"The Star Clan." Shinigami-sama said. "A while back a witch infiltrated their ranks, they aided in her capture on one condition, that the lives she ruined would be spared." Maka shivered, kishen-eggs allowed to roam free, it was terrifying to imagine. "So far they've held up their end of the bargain, but Soul saw one of her creations sniffing around when you were incapacitated. Did he try to hurt you?"

All eyes in the room were on her. She barely had, had a chance to make sense of it herself. There hadn't been any malice in the soul, but she definitely had been prodded at. Curves of raw electrical power had reached out like warm static. Then again, she had been pretty out of it. Was it concern she felt? Maybe, but it was more like curiosity. Had Soul not done anything she was certain something would have happened, but it wouldn't have hurt.

"No."

"That's good." Lord Death leaned back with a light chuckle. "Their story checks out then."

"Shinigami-sama are you certain we don't have to switch schools?" Kami wasn't any less pale. "Venus may have helped us with Cassandra's execution, but the others weren't exactly grateful. She can't possibly keep an eye on every one of them."

"Kami," Spirit put a hand on her shoulder, "it'll be fine." In the thirteen years since he became a death scythe, not once had someone come after them. It truly seemed like a coincidence.

"If any of them come near you again, please let us know." Shinigami-sama said. Maka nodded and reluctantly leaned on Soul for support as they left the adults to discuss what to do next.

"Was it really that bad?" Maka asked.

"I don't know." He squeezed her arm. "He sounded human, but he had weird eyes, these wild stripes on his skin and fangs, but from his jaw."

"I don't think you're in any position to judge people's teeth." He closed his lips before she could poke one of his own sharp incisors. Laughing still hurt, but she couldn't help herself.

"I'm serious Maka, the werewolf we were fighting called him a death demon. It freaked me the hell out."

"I'm sorry." She paused, a wave of fresh pain throbbed from her wound. "At least now we're even." Her attempts to lighten the mood only deepened his frown. "Quit blaming yourself. Remember how it felt from the other side of the hospital bed? I'm the one that got distracted." Resuming the long crawl back to the nurses office, she gave his shoulder a light tap with her fist. "And I tried to wield you when we weren't at our best. I should have listened to you more instead of charging ahead." He raised a brow.

"Does this mean you'll finally listen to my favorite band?" She really didn't want to, but it wasn't like she had anything better to do. Besides, she kind of owed it to him.

"Sure." She said. "Can you at least start me on the more popular album instead of the 'best' one." After seeing him cringe when she praised an AJR album, she learned their tastes in music vastly differed. There had to be a middle ground somewhere they could find.

Black Star had always known his family was unique. Everyone older than him had modifications made to their body to be the perfect killers. Compared to them, he'd always been smaller, younger, squishier. He had no weapons built into his body like Seiryu or cool supernatural powers that could surprise his enemies, and it was likely he never would. He'd been so frustrated to find he'd always be two steps behind, but his elders insisted that was what made him special. Out of everyone in the village, he was the only one to never have consumed a human soul. After so many years of being told that, he believed he was exactly like the people outside.

Now he could see that the only people who were allowed on missions, either disappeared into the darkness, or made themselves look like other people. It wasn't just rules to be a good assassin, it was rules to survive. Banned from group training as a part of his punishment, he sulked on the back porch, pretending not to watch the others with seething jealousy. He hated disguise training, but watching Haruko effortlessly shift the placement of her features into another replica of a human while Suzuka cheered her on had him green with envy. He'd been spinning his wheels in the mud with all the stupid non-combat training because he thought he didn't need it.

"Hey now." He heard the metallic clunking of iron before Seiryu's voice. For some it would be impossible to go through life unnoticed. At least she got to be an armored tank of a weapon in exchange, what did he get? A scythe to the shoulder, that's what he got. Seiryu sat down next to him with a tray of cookies and milk tea clearly meant for him. He wasn't a child, he didn't need to be pacified with food. He took one anyway. "I know you're anxious to be able to leave, I was too, but these things take time." He continued to glare at the brutal training he wasn't allowed to take part in. "There's a rumor Lord Death is letting the undead back into his services. Suzuka's thinks in a couple of years, people will be more inclined to accept other partially revived folks."

"What is the point of being weaker than everyone here, if they don't even care!?" So many times he had asked when it would be his turn to go onto the next step, like all his relatives before him. One soul was clearly enough to awaken whatever transformation lied guarded in human soul.

"All of us wish we could go back." She said. The bandage around his shoulder seeped red around the wound edge, and she traced it gently with a finger made of different throwing knives. "What happened wasn't your fault, it was ours, and I'm sorry you're paying the price for it. Keeping you safe is the only thing your father cares about. If becoming like us would do that, we wouldn't have been able to stop him." She joined him in watching the other trainees struggle to change appearance fast enough to not get caught. "That is the only thing that's kept us in Lord Death's good graces. Before, he thought all kishen-eggs were lost causes that were unable to feel remorse, but seeing one so far gone protect a little baby..." He glared up at her, he was not a little baby any more. "People have the power to change the minds of gods. If he could do that, I can only imagine what you'll be able to do just as you are." Finally accepting the tea, he watched his fellow trainees and tried to imagine how different things would be if they didn't have to change.

The Star Clan's base of operations was buried in the tallest peak of a small town in the heart of Texas. Surrounded by lush overgrown greenery, it was a miracle if someone managed to find the mailbox, let alone climb the skyscraper length stairs. So when a visitor was able to ring the front doorbell without so much as a drop of sweat, the family was on high alert. They had long replaced guards in towers along the main gates with small cameras that flickered to life at the slightest bit of movement. The last time Suzuka had greeted a guest at the front door, had been when he was human. He towered over their visitor, every implement of destruction in his coat proudly fanned out as the cinders of his chest flared to bright embers.

"Hello, my name is Na-" She paused, remembering that people in the states tended to go by their first name. "My name is Tsubaki." He killed the flames and tried to look less like the devil at the gates of hell. "May I come in?" He immediately stepped aside, motioning for people to scatter so she didn't get overwhelmed by the rogues gallery of assassins.

"Of course, this way please." It had only been a few days since they accepted the Nakatsukasa case, but so far the Uncanny Sword had escaped capture. The trail of victims had grown and it was only a matter of time before Lord Death noticed a new kishen-egg rising to power. "What brings you all the way out here?"

"I was told if I ever changed my mind, to come here." She said quietly, wondering if she had assumed the open invitation was more than a figure of speech. She scanned the room for a familiar face a few heads shorter than her. Everyone had tattoos and other unique features, so it wouldn't be the most useful identifiers. She'd need a polite way to acurately describe the scrawling stripe patterns she'd seen. With a poof of smoke she was looking up at Suzuka with a puff of blue hair. "Where can I find the young man who looks like this?" She transformed back when embers started to rise up from her host. "I ran into him a few times. He thinks I could be my brother's real target." He hadn't phrased it quite so eloquently, relying on video game terms and other immature calls to a challenge. "I don't want to fight him, but it's starting to look like I don't have a choice." She pulled her bangs back to show a fresh gash on her cheek. "Your assassin said he'd help me if it came to that."

"I'll send for him right away." Suzuka said. Body guard duty was the simplest, dullest duty an agent could have. It involved a lot of standing around doing nothing. "His name is Black Star by the way." He gave her a pat on the back. "When we go to talk to the head, make sure to request him by name." Even if the DWMA got to the Uncanny Sword first, protecting the Nakatsukasa's only surviving child would earn them the family's respect. It was an incredible blessing in disguise that Black Star was about as stealthy as a rock. He could spin this into the hero story the young boy so desperately wanted to be in. "Thank you so much for coming all the way out here."