Maka was pulled back into her body with such force, it had her stumble right into Soul's arms. From the floor, Angela was concentrating on sealing the kishin egg in it's current state. Dozens of souls had been relinquished, but not all of them. Seeing the clarity in his father's eyes, Black Star was ready to celebrate. That was, until a foreboding crack echoed through the dungeon. Fear rose up in the teens as White Star's last restraint ripped from the walls. A wild set of eyes scanned the room for who was responsible.
"You..." Claws came through the bars, bending them apart as the seals that held him fell uselessly on the floor. Soul transformed, and Maka prepared to defend herself. "Are grounded for 50 years!"
They were dumbfounded. Angela had skittered out of the path of an angry adult to hide behind Maka. It was Black Star caught in the crosshairs, still torn between relief and utter surprise that he was the one being glared at.
"Letting in outsiders," White Star bellowed, "taking missions for free, bringing the voyeur's bobbles onto our doorstep? Dangling innocent children in front of a horde of hungry demons!? What were you thinking?"
"I think it worked." Soul muttered, having received his fair share of embarrassing lectures from his own parents.
"I was just trying to help." Black Star had never literally and figuratively felt so small. Granted, he never really met his father before the curse doomed him to a stupor, but this wasn't the kind, protective figure he had been told about. Which shouldn't have surprised him given how his aunt ran things.
"I told you over and over again to stop this. You don't get to decide-" The doorbell rang overhead, his eye twitched as he looked up at the ceiling. "What was that?"
"DeathEats." Black Star said, immediately shattered under a violent gaze.
"WHAT PART OF SECRET ASSASSIN VILLAGE DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND!?" He stepped away. They still had guests, and he needed a better control on his temper. There were many things he'd been told over the years he wanted to address, just none with a death scythe so close nearby. He could smell the fledgling shinigami waiting in the forest outside. The compound was once again surrounded. "I knew it. I knew they'd just let you do whatever you wanted, that's why I left Venus in charge."
Black Star's heart sunk even more. Being kept in a cage was always the plan, there were no grand destinies for them. They were expected to wither in the shadows by design. It was also, extremely embarrassing to get chewed out in front of his some of his only friends.
"Where's your little girlfriend?" White Star asked. "Wasn't she the one who said she'd keep you from doing stupid shit?"
Black Star didn't know where Tsubaki was. He had hoped she would have woken up to his texts earlier, but he'd gotten nothing back. Not that he blamed her. If he had known this was the end result, he wouldn't have insisted she stay. However, that one little comment had sent a ripple across the room. Maka was glaring at the floor with her grip on Soul so tight her gloves squeaked in protest.
"Dad, she's not my girlfriend, she's my weapon." Or at least she had been. His dad rolled his eyes not caring to know the difference. "Maka, she's not, I swear."
"I need to report to Lord Death." Maka knew there had to be a mirror around here somewhere. She needed to jump quickly to good news before her brain latched onto that sentence to prod at an old, unhealed wound. A girlfriend, the idea shouldn't upset her. After all, they were just friends. "Where's a mirror?"
"Oh, you're not going anywhere kiddo." White Star glared down at her. In a blink Black Star had stepped in between them. "Only the family gets to know what's in this place. You must know that much." Black Star remained firm.
"You can't." Something was wrong, he wanted to be angry at his father, but he couldn't feel anything. Acting more on impulse he felt his voice grow flat the harder he tried to tap into a way to intimidate the larger demon. "They're the only reason you can talk right now. You're indebted to her." At the mention of debt, White Star stood down. A life for a life was the oldest tenant of the clan, and Maka had made no move to execute him. "I'll collect the souls for you Maka. You should go."
Maka wasted no time and ran. The other kishen-eggs howled in their cages, betrayed by the change in events.
"Shut up, all of you." White Star shouted. "When the voyeur is satisfied, you'll have your chance." He took Black Star by the arm, and lead him upstairs. "As for you, the only people you get to boss around are the dead. You're going to tell me the names of everyone who let you get away with this and all of you are going to be reminded why we work in the goddamn shadows!"
Walking into the death room, Maka could see her mother struggle to hold her tongue. Maka had given the lost souls to Kid and together they had been able to rescue over a hundred innocent afterlives. Lord Death was quite pleased by the bundle that had been offered to him, and it over shadowed the danger they had been in a few moments ago.
"Interesting White Star was who they thought would be the most cooperative." Lord Death chuckled. He had tried to help as many Star Clan members as he could, but like little children, too many held onto their grudge and shut him out. "I'm impressed by just how many you were able to confiscate. If they continue to be willing, I'd love to try and help the others again." What little good she had managed to do filled Maka's heart with pride.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it without Soul." She said. "I think with a little more practice we'd be able to help even more people, but it was really dangerous. I don't think I should do it again without proper supervision and a little more practice." Soul looped his arm around her in a tight side hug.
"A very wise decision Maka." Lord Death smiled behind his mask.
"What about the little witch?" Kid asked. "I understand she's relatively harmless now, but should her magic pull her in a destructive direction, we'd have to intervene."
"True." Lord Death looked up at the artificial sky. Often, he worried about the magical tools falling into the wrong hands and used for something sinister. For once, it seemed the Book of Eibon had found the perfect reader. There was much to learn from children, he knew that first hand. "Healing magic is incredibly difficult and draining to witches. If she's still passionate about helping people after all of this, we have little to worry about."
"Any progress we made will be ruined by White Star's revival." Kami couldn't hold her tongue any longer. She'd been told he was dead, there shouldn't have been a second chance for someone so dangerous. "He has no respect for meisters or weapons. Things will just go back to the way they were, with them charging to protect people from the kishin eggs they make." She had no proof that would happen, but she still clearly remembered being talked down to by one of the assassins as a child.
"What about the debt?" Soul snapped his fingers. "Black Star said he owed you one. Couldn't you use that as a way to make him stick to the treaty?"
"I dislike bartering with people's lives." Kid said. "But I imagine pardoning the others would help rebuild that bridge as well. Perhaps working out some kind of exchange to build trust. We have someone on the inside that could help enforce it now." Maka couldn't imagine the ice giant listening to a word Black Star said, but what they saw could have been a reaction to them breaking dozens of rules in one afternoon. It was hard to tell who to believe.
"That could work." Lord Death hummed in agreement. "It would be a good way to bring more subtle press to them working together." The attempt alone would make the pair look good.
"I'm glad you like Soul's idea." Maka disliked how the gleeful plotting look was back on her mother's face. This was their leap of blind faith that had ended up working out. Yes, Kid had agreed to act as their back up and handle the innocent souls, but he had little to do with any of the planning.
"Yes." Her mother pulled out a tablet and furiously scribbled things in a little calendar. "Yes, we make an official statement in a week after the dust settles. Then we set up monthly, or rather, bi monthly trade agreements. Throughout the meetings we can have your outfits coordinate subtly more each time. Then we can have that leading up to the official engagement."
"Soul and I don't have to match." Maka insisted, only to be waved off. "I don't think the Star Clan would appreciate giving the spotlight to people who weren't directly involved." The matter had been deeply private and the fact Maka and Soul had seen anything was an anomaly. She didn't want to shatter that trust by using the family's rehabilitation as a publicity stunt.
"It's just too perfect. We'll get to show everyone what a great team you are." Everyone fully paying attention, took a step away to give Maka space. Even the grim reaper seemed to conveniently find a reason to disappear to a different mirror. Soul muttered a quiet plea for Maka just let it go so they could leave. "The young Lord Death's first policy will really grab some eyes."
"I'm sorry Soul." Maka felt an icy cold anger that she couldn't properly articulate. It was one thing to treat her life like a pawn on a chess board. It was another to blatantly erase her partner's contributions so the credit could be used for another stupid fluff piece. She turned around and walked out of the death room.
"Maka?" Kami looked up, and then at the two boys trying not to look embarrassed on the adult's behalf. Soul muttered a quick apology before darting out after his meister. Kid, as well composed as he could, coughed and redirected the conversation towards a different concern of his.
"Have you heard back from the students that were sent to the amazonian region?" He asked. "Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but I feel Kim would have bragged about finding something by now." Kami turned to the mirror, shocked to see it was empty. "I will take that as a no."
Soul found Maka sulking at one of their favorite coffee shops. She toasted to his arrival grimly with a half-eaten cookie. Her hot chocolate quickly chilling as it was assaulted by the winter air. He pulled up a rod iron chair and sat down, declining her offer to share. The logo on the cup were new since the last time they came, with some flower design on it. It wasn't unusual for the mom and pop shop to rotate through companies every year or so.
"It's okay if Kid gets credit for all the diplomacy stuff. I don't like my name in the paper, remember?" He didn't want Maka getting into a fight with her mom on his behalf, and he had learned to recognize when she was drafting long winded rants in her head. She angrily munched on a pink frosted biscuit. "You remember how everyone made a big deal about me becoming a death scythe like you hadn't been there the whole time? Think of this as paying it forward. I thought this whole treaty thing was what you wanted."
"Not like this, not by treating people healing as an add for a stupid wedding." She nearly choked, washing everything down as quickly as possible. Then, hearing how that sounded, quickly back pedaled. "That was just the last straw, y'know. I could take people treating my friendship with Kid as a spectacle and to lump my achievements into a resume to be a 'good wife'." The cookie broke in two. "I had even come to terms with the fact that most people would only want to talk to me for their own self interests, but I refuse to be that kind of person. I get a lot of good can come from it alliances and deals. I just can't take people lying. And then to treat you like some cardboard standee that happened to be in the room? I can't. I can't let them do that to you. The whole reason you came out here was to not be that person."
"I wish you were this mad about what they've done to you." He said had seen the dark circles, and how the stress of it all had taken her away from the things she did care about. "I'll back you up on whatever you want to do, but it's got to be for you. If you put your foot down over me, they'll just start looking for a scythe who's okay with being on camera." She knew the lengths Kid had gone through to partner with the Thompsons and that level of meddling was not out of the question.
"I'm stuck hurting someone no matter what I do." She said, not liking any of the potential solutions to her problem. "If she was just a little more reasonable..." Soul had never known any mother to be reasonable when it came to mapping out their children's lives. Despite all warnings, there was nothing to stop imaginations of the future. "We shouldn't have told them until we finished helping everyone, they deserve privacy."
"Don't we all." He shook his head. "Hey, chin up. I'm sure you'll think of something."
"The cookie's helping." Her storming out did seem like a childish response to being ignored. She could draft up a counter proposal, something kinder to the people still waiting to be set free. Then there was the matter of the remaining souls White Star held onto. There was still something he was afraid of that he'd guarded too close for her to see. Lord Death enjoyed rules and process, if she could think of something ridiculously complicated, it could slow things down in a way even her mother couldn't argue with. Most of her problems would go away then. Just thinking about it made her feel a little lighter.
White Star was warmly received by sycophants as he took stock of the house. Reflective surfaces were all over the place, people had computers in their pockets that could track their location, and their numbers had dwindled drastically since he was last fully lucid. He doubted they chose to retire, and cursed under his breath. His sister lied about a lot of things to keep up with the modern age, including how well Black Star was doing. His poor son was dumbfounded why someone who had consumed hundreds of souls should be punished. There was so much she hid from him, it was no wonder he kept trying to talk to him while he'd been held underground.
"My office." He said, sparing a glare at the others. "The rest of you, clear anything that could be used as a mirror out of the kitchen and bathrooms. The only thing I want him seeing is the forest, understand?" There was a clatter of activity as people ran to revert the house to how it was under stricter rules. The office door swung shut behind him. A lot of things had been thrown out over the years. One of the only things that remained was the glaze vase where the family's souls were laid to rest. It was pitifully empty, compared to what it should have been. Only Venus' soul dwelled inside. "Hand that to the samurai and tell him to hide it." He said, not wanting to reveal how tempting it was to fall on old habits just by looking at the soul. "What exactly did those idiots tell you about why we're here?"
"We've always been here." Black Star said. "Then mom came along and cursed everybody, and since Lord Death hates kishin eggs, the people who can't look human have to stay here or work in the shadows." White Star nodded along, his face grimmer as Black Star elaborated on the scattered details he'd picked up since his aunt's death.
"Before there were meisters and spiritlines, we took care of ferrying the dead." White Star said. "After Asura, he dismissed the family from his service." Generations of warriors had died waiting for Lord Death to change his mind. "I got it into my head if I took him down, that it would prove we were better than his meisters, but..." He was never the best assassin. A jack of all trades, he'd searched for a secret weapon that would whisper the future into his ear, and created the facade of an assassin that never failed to kill his target. "Anyone that could see into the future told me I would fail and I just kept searching until I found someone that would tell me what I wanted to hear. Cassie kept selling us that line until Lord Death killed her and we saw what she'd done to keep us all alive." He should have known, in those last few years when she smiled brighter than the sun, that something drastic had happened while he wasn't looking. "If she were here, she'd be very proud of what you did, but searching for grand solutions to complicated problems doesn't make them go away." He grimaced at the sight of the sigils all over Black Star's soul. "Bringing me back isn't going to fix the mess you've made." Black Star glared at him in turn. "First thing tomorrow morning, you will be escorted to the Nakatuskasa estate. You are going to beg for that family's forgiveness and give their child a proper crossing ceremony as was promised. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir." Old habits died hard, and standing before an angry adult in the head office made him feel back in those shoes again. He could see the ghost of the stern presence that loathed his existence was back with vengeance, as each freedom he'd gain was stripped one by one. No more missions. No more going outside whenever he felt. No visiting the DWMA.
"Give me the phone." He didn't want to admit he had one. Everyone else was being forced to throw theirs away, so he knew it wasn't a punishment, but it was the only way he had to contact his friends. "People can track you through it. Give it here." Just as he was about to lie and say he'd gotten rid of it already, his pocket buzzed. He pulled it out and threw it on the desk with a rough crack as the screen cracked.
"I was the only one who wanted to save you." Black Star hissed under his breath, leaving the office as his father demanded respect at his back. The door to Black Star's room slammed shut. Everyone froze in place, the entryway to White Star's office still wide open, their leader looking at the wary faces with new paranoid rage.
"Who has been responsible for him since Venus passed?" He asked in voice deadly calm. Genbu and Elaine were the first that came to mind, but both were still in mourning and had the weakest defenses against physical attacks.
"I was." Seiryu said, well aware her armor would protect her if need be. White Star tapped his desk with an iron claw. Slowly, she made the way to his office. The door drifted shut. And everyone went back to pretending like nothing happened.
Under a moonless sky, Black Star winded through the empty streets. He couldn't go back to living under someone's iron thumb. It was absolutely shocking how little gratitude his father had for keeping the family alive that long with his own leadership. While he wanted to appologize to Tsubaki, he wanted to do it on his own terms. Most of all he didn't want to disappear without Maka knowing what happened to him. As he made his way along the street, he was surprised when he saw Maka loitering outside of a closed shop.
"Maka?" She looked towards him, somewhat dazed. "I'm so glad I found you. Look I'm sorry about my dad. He's been comatose most of my life so it didn't occur to me he'd be an asshole." It should have known, it was willfully foolish to look away from the body count and assume it was some kind of misunderstanding. He just wanted someone to believe in him, and the two people who did would be ripped away from him.
"It never occurred to you an assassin would try to solve his problems with murder?" Maka raised an eyebrow. She had known the danger going in. Everyone else seemed to too, he just wanted to believe with his whole heart the best possible outcome would happen. "It's not like he's wrong to be so mad. Lord Death wants to use the healing spell as a way to advertise that I..." She bit her lip. She hadn't actually said that she was getting married out loud before. It was always the engagement, something she had to put up with, not something she was planning to do. "They're going to try to use you guys. I tried to warn you, but you didn't check your phone." Where the hell was she? She'd just gone out to throw out the trash. It had seemed so nice outside, a walk had sounded nice, but now she was shivering in the cold.
"He took it." He grabbed her wrist even though she wasn't trying to back away. "He doesn't want me to be able to even talk to you again." He had no plan before running out of the house. Just the feeling if he didn't do something then, he'd never get the chance to again. "I spend all my time over thinking what to send you or what to say, just so I don't lose you. I've wanted this more than anything I've been told I'm supposed to want, I can't let him take that away." Somewhere along the lines she had stepped closer to him. Whatever perfume or shampoo she used was very strong, and he tried not too think to hard on it. He was trying to have a serious discussion, but she kept staring up at him with glossy, expectant eyes. "Are you feeling alright?"
"No." Her head was filled with wild imaginings again of what he could possibly mean, but this time it was hard to shake. The cynical voice that told her she was acting like an idiot had pleasantly dulled. "I like you more than I should too."
"That doesn't seem like a bad thing to me."
"It is." She brought a hand up to trace the markings on her neck. "I'm not allowed to like anyone." No one had explicitly told her that, but she had felt obligated to abide by it for the sake of her own morals. A marriage, arranged or not, should be honored with a certain level of sacredness. "Especially people who says things that sound like they like me back." Every time she'd step up to fully embrace the heartache, something he did would drag her back into collecting 'what ifs' like precious ornaments. A very stupid idea she had half joked about was rising to the surface again. If she just had something to catch her when she fell. "The Star Clan does anything for money, right?"
"Maka, you saved my dad's life." With his thumb, he whipped off a pink something smudged against her lips. "You can have anything you want whenever." She smiled, leaning forward until their noses touched.
"Say you like me back." Something sweet wafted against his face, like strawberries dipped in resin smoke. "Or say you don't." He was supposed to be doing something else, before pulling her aside, but it slipped from his memory. He'd said he liked her in as many ways as he could without crossing the line she was now pulling him toward. "Whatever it is, I need to know so I stop driving myself crazy."
Her hands were soft against his cheeks, a sharp contrast to the grit of sugar on her lips. Out of the corner of his eye, something moved, but then it seemed incredibly rude to ignore someone giving the most concentrated amount of attention he'd ever received in his entire life. She had her hand up along his jaw, so it seemed safe to do the same, though it was easier to slide past her cheeks into her hair. His senses dulled until all he could focus on was the beat of his own heart and a warm tongue invading his mouth. When he pulled away, everything was hazy. The world was strawberries, cold hands and nothing else.