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A New Experiment	By : JuxtaposedWars Category: +S to Z > Soul Eater Views: 2718 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Atsushi Okubo's Soul Eater or its characters, and do not profit from their use. Nor do I know Fever Ray's song lyrics, or profit from their use.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
A New Experiment

Chapter Six

Disclaimer: I do not own Atsushi Okubo's Soul Eater and gain no profit from its use.  This is strictly a fan fiction.

Story Pairings: SteinxOC, SoulxMaka, mild SpiritxBlair

Hot sand and wind whipped across the twenty faces that were all thinly veiling the weight of mortality with whatever kept them calm; for some it was joking around, making bets, others praying, a few resonated with their partners or played short and simple games, but most preferred silence as Stein and Rowan did.  Stein, never witnessing his partner's full capabilities, was keeping close observation on the woman from the corner of his eye.  Since they had resonated the night before, the crack in her soul seemed to be stitched closed, almost as if he'd done the sutures himself—still though, he knew she suffered from madness, but to what extent, he couldn't tell.  Her soul wasn't still like it normally was…the predatory silence of it was fidgeting now, like a cat readying its hind legs before a pounce.

The impending danger had her excitement becoming nearly tangible.  Stein knew that this was Rowan's entire life: hunting, fighting, sacrficing, survival.  His concern was alert though—if he couldn't contain his madness, would she be able to keep her sanity in check by herself?  What if they both succumbed to their inhumane wants?  Would they end up killing any of their platoon that tried to stop them, or worse, would they forget their mission and end up killing Spirit along with the witch that stole the Death Scythe?

"If you stress too much about it, then you're more apt to be consumed." Rowan suddenly mumbled only loud enough for him to hear.  "I'll bring you back, Stein."

As foolhardy as that promise seemed, he settled on taking comfort in the fact that she said his name.  Deep down, he knew she couldn't care less what people called him—to her, names weren't that important—but she still took the time to say it, reminding him that she cared about him enough to make the effort.  For a woman who knows next to nothing about socializing, she could read him very well.

"Sir!" The radio operator called from the front of the canvassed truck, "We've received confirmations from all four captains, Sir!"

"How many spies altogether?" Stein called across the noisy truck.

"Seven, Sir.  Captain Barrett's company prevented the insurgents from splitting-up, so the box operation was still a success, Sir." The operator smirked.

"We're getting close.  They're twelve miles out now." Rowan interrupted.

"Good." Stein replied, emotionless.  "We'll go on foot when we're a mile back.  You're up front from here on.  Keep the operator informed, he'll direct our convoy.  I want you back with me as soon as we're off the truck."

Rowan nodded, "Got it." and made her way to the half-seat directly between the driver and operator, immediately relaying the order to the front-seat occupants.

~*~

Soul looked lazily up from the balcony to see Maka's cast-wrapped leg and the ends of her crutches dangling of the edge of the roof.  How she got up there was beyond him (the behavior was more familiar with BlackStar and Tsubaki), but he could only guess she was up there to see the far-off battle.  Latching his hands onto the gutter edge, the scythe pulled up from his arms and easily climbed in beside his lover.  She was hiding her face, he could hear her sobs though.  Wrapping his arms around her only gave him a sharp elbow to his chest; she didn't want comfort, or love, or reason.

So they sat watching the small clouds of dust and listened to the barely-audible blasts and crashes that weren't deafened by the gusts of wind.  Suddenly, a small shock wave made the roof tremble.  Maka braced on the shingles as her watered eyes followed Soul's to the North, where there was a large cloud of smoke.

Maka's mouth gaped, "That's Professor Stein's platoon…"

"Yeah…" Soul couldn't hold back the breathy sound in his voice.  "Looks like they caught up to the witch."

Though reports they both overheard confirmed that the larger battle was near Lake Powell and the actual witch was well-into the Great Basin Province, the fight to the North seemed much closer than it actually was.  The green-eyed meister wept quietly for her friends and her uselessness, while her white-haired weapon could've sworn he was grinding his sharp teeth down to dulled nubs.  Despite her earlier protests, Maka wormed her way under Soul's arm.  He looked down at her, noticing the pinkness of her legs—he quickly draped his leather jacket over her lap, hoping to thwart any further sunburn that would only increase her misery.

Quietly, he shoved his disdain for his talent aside to draw her closer, humming in her ear the tune that he had played for her so many years ago.

~*~

Black rain shaped like scorpion stings burned the earth Stein's platoon ran across.  Twelve had died during the first barrage of cursed rain, their skin melting and crisping into char as if the magic were made of fiery-acid and the air stunk of burned flesh.  One of the hooks on Rowan's blades was completely melted away—Stein could only imagine what part of her body it had damaged, but she didn't show any signs of slowing down.  He bolstered his soul-body as a third rain pelted down, managing to protect both him and Rowan with the ghoulish and bloated barrier.  With what seemed like the end of the downpour, thirty-eight agents were no longer able to fight, most of them weapons.

Only a few medic-trained pairs stayed behind while Stein and the remaining meister's that had their weapons pressed on.  Some took the initiative to cut-off the witch's advance with a few armed dirt bikes that flanked the convoy.  Stein could already see their souls lose the last of their life, but they succeeded in stopping the witch and he could see her up ahead.  There was no time for sneak-attacks or ambush; in open desert, all opponents fought face-to-face and as the handful of agents under his command followed his hand signals, they closed-in and circled the witch.

A stand-off ensued as the witch stood wielding Death Scythe with what seemed like great ease, but Stein could see she had Spirit under a powerful spell.  Restraining the Death Scythe with her magic came at the cost of Spirit's power—she couldn't use his full strength without endangering herself.

"READY!" Stein ordered, and at that moment, the seven meister-souls surrounding the witch swelled to enormous sizes, matching the soul of the witch, and resonated with their weapons.

~*~

Maka cried more with the haunting hum of Soul against her face.  The low minor keys rumbled underneath her in his chest.  His hold on her tightened as they felt the DWMA's elite resonate their souls far off across the state line.  Chills ran up both of their spines as a big explosion came from the West where their friends, BlackStar, Sid, Kilik, Kim and Kid were fighting with their partners.  The humming went darker and more intense as Maka's tears continued to overflow from her burning eyes.

~*~

The roar of souls whipped the wind about haphazardly.  Dust, sand, and shrubs kicked up and clouded outside of the encircled souls, building a wall of debris.

"I can't reach Spirit!" Stein's voice called out to Rowan through the hurricane-like winds.  "I need to invade his soul if we stand any chance of lifting that curse!"

In unison, the sixteen elite shouted out, "RESONANCE LINK!"

A storm of wavelengths twisted lashed in static, connecting the souls into a chain of power.

Stein spoke the order, " Skiff, Molto, Graham, Knox!  You take the first offensive and make an opening for me and Rowan!  I need to get a hold of Death Scythe!"

"Yes Sir!"  The four called out.

"Once I'm in, it's up Rowan and the rest of you to fight off the witch until I have Death Scythe under my control, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"YES SIR!"  rang out in the minds of all sixteen souls.

They lunged.

~*~

His humming ran deep into a mournful melody as they watched with the crowds on the balconies the tornado-like dust cloud of the resonance link and the witches black lightning shooting up from the terrain behind a small range of mountains.  Maka let Soul's foreboding composition envelope her.  She wasn't crying, but her heart ached under the weight of her lover's song, feeling his soul reach out to tie around her.

~*~

Skiff and Knox clashed against both ends of Death Scythe, struggling to hold the witch in place, grabbing the hooded-woman by her wrinkled hands.  The witch struck Knox's weapon, Molto, with a curse, splitting the sword's blade in half; Molto fell to the ground as a screaming human, legs severed at in the femur and no longer able to let him stand.  The witch shrieked some imam babble and Knox let go as his tattooed arm caught on fire—Skiff struggled to hold on while black stingers stretched out from her cloak, puncturing his arm and weapon several times, causing Graham to transform back into a human, protecting Skiff and being stung incessantly.  Graham, a weapon of seventeen, clutched the hilt of Death Scythe and pushed back against the blade with her palm, bracing; Knox quickly regained his composure and grabbed the other end of Death Scythe's staff, Skiff put a death-grip again on the witch's wrist, this time not letting go.  Rowan ran headlong into the middle, ducking under Death Scythe to reveal Stein directly behind her, grabbing Spirit's staff as Rowan managed to slash at the witch's sternum with her glaive-hand.

The witch lost grip of the cursed scythe as Stein screamed out, "SOUL INVASION!"

As the great meister collapsed on his cursed friend's weapon form, stitches fastened Stein's hands to Spirit, and anchored both into the ground as the witch's curse flailed voraciously under the soul sutures.  Meanwhile, the witch spewed multiple scorpion stingers from her mouth in a blood-curdling scream.  The blunt of her attack aimed at Rowan, pinning the demon-glaive on the ground at the witch's feet.  Two freakishly long pincers shot out from under her black hood in the direction of Stein's unconscious body, sending the three agents restraining her, flying.  Before the pincers could strike, two other meisters destroyed them with the Witch Hunter.

Rowan choked on her own scream as the stingers injected a burning venom into her body, and her only reaction was to kick and slice madly at the offending mass of scorpion tails dangling from the witch's mouth.  Just before scrambling away, Rowan kicked upwards with all of her might, feeling the witch's chin crack about her foot, sending the old hag falling back.  Everyone attacked the enemy relentlessly, and the ground quaked with the impact of every strike.  Another meister launched an attack at the witch while she was down, missing as the cloaked woman rolled aside.  Leaving all jaw-dropped at the abhorrent face under the hood.

~*~

Everything burned…like every cell in his body was being jabbed with hot pokers.  He looked around through his broken and smoky-stained glasses—he was in water.  He sat still, twitching, shutting-off any sense that could hinder him; he slowly pushed away the agony he felt from the burning, pushed away his temptation to drink the water.  He heard a whimper right beside his ear and jolted—he turned to look and saw nothing.

"SPIRIIIIIIT!"  he called out.

Only the groan of a familiar voice came in response and it was right in his ear.  There was no one near Stein.  Frantic, he sat up shakily and ran towards a random direction.

He called out again, "SPIRIT!  IT'S STEIN!  SPIRIT ALBARN!"

As he ran he could feel Spirit's soul, but couldn't see it.

"Ss…ein…" Spirit's voice struggled, yet it sounded far away now.

Stein ran towards the sound frantically, splashing through the shallow water.  He abruptly stopped with the revelation—if he followed Spirit's voice, it became more difficult to sense his soul, and vice-versa.  Which one was the right way?  He dropped to his knees again, this time howling, cackling.

~*~

The witch was hideous…wrinkled, gaunt, and she had no eyes, as if she was born without them.  With one whip of her hand, a black wind rushed from her palm taking down four of the eight meisters surrounding her.  Knox was useless with Molto, his weapon, crippled on the ground.  Skiff and Graham were succumbing to the same venom that was burning inside of Rowan now too.  All that was left was one meister-weapon pair and Rowan.

The burning was excruciating, but she stood stumbling in front of Stein and the Death Scythe.  Just as Rowan nodded to the two agents running to her side, Stein's unconscious body broke out in a fit of laughter behind them.  Taking the distraction as an opportunity, the witch chanted quietly and took off.  Noticing the escape, the meister and her weapon followed immediately.

"STAY WITH THEM IN CASE SHE COMES BACK!" The freckled meister yelled over her shoulder. "WE'LL TAKE CARE OF THAT UGLY BITCH!" she laughed, and soon the pair disappeared into the mirage of the Nevada heat.

Rowan kneeled over her meister and his friend at a loss—she'd never fought a witch that strong before, Stein was gasping for air in his own laughter beneath her gaze, she felt like her blood was replaced by boiling-hot oil, and she panicked when Stein's frightening laughter turned into a seizure.  He was flailing against the soul sutures that held him in place and Rowan was cursing herself for it.  She had taught him the Soul Invasion technique—the same she used on him when she pulled him out of his madness on the plane—and it was apparent that he wasn't ready for it, the witch's curse on Death Scythe was making the invasion backfire, but in what way?  She'd never done an invasion chain before and Stein's madness was clearly gaining the upper hand; if she went in now, she would be as helpless as them both…how could she protect them if the witch doubled-back?  How could she protect them if she didn't dive in?!

Rowan nearly jumped out of her skin when Skiff's hand slapped down on her shoulder.  He had Graham back in weapon form and sat facing Rowan with knowing brown eyes.

"Go fix it.  We've got your back." He spoke sternly and Rowan complied.

Without a second of though Rowan spoke quietly. "Soul Invasion."

Immediately, she collapsed on top of Stein and the Death Scythe, Spirit.  Stein's soul sutures wasted no time stitching Rowan against Stein's seizure-riddled body, his screw loudly clanking against the ground.  Skiff and Graham sat labored with the pain of the venom, keeping vigil the best way they could.

~*~

Rowan struggled to open her eyes, feeling her face in water.  She looked around and saw nothing, yet she could hear Stein off in the distance.  Her poisoning seemed amplified now…she stood to notice Stein only a few meters behind her, yet his fits of laughter sounded deafened.  She walked toward him and his voice seemed to disappear—he was running his fingers down his face, scratching his skin open.

"Stein, get up." She commanded coldly.

He couldn't hear her.  She was too close for him to hear her.  Crouching beside him shot a fiery pain up her spine, but she ignored it, grabbing both of his hands from clawing his face away.  She hopped to straddle him and looked him dead in the eye—it didn't seem to phase his insanity.  Aggravated, Rowan began pulsing her soul wavelengths into her meister and slowly, she watched as the sight of the laughter began to wane, She heard a scream close by…guessing that was probably his friend, Spirit Albarn.  They didn't have much time left.

What seemed like minutes later, Stein realized that Rowan was hovering over him…where was he?  Did the invasion fail?  He felt water under him…it was still dark…as close as Rowan was, he couldn't hear her breathing…but he heard Spirit.  No, he didn't fail his mission, but they weren't out of the woods yet.

"What are you doing in here?" he spoke up at his female partner.

She couldn't hear him, but Rowan tried to read Stein's lips.  It looked like he said 'What are you doing inner' and she caught on to his words.

"Where is Spirit?" she asked, trying to make her lips as decipherable as possible.

Stein watched her mouth move carefully and understood.  He lifted her off of his torso, knowing he couldn't properly explain with silent words.  He lifted his hand to his scratched mouth, gestured it in a way that resembled talking, then pointed in down beside them, as if to say that Spirit's voice was close.  Next he lifted his other hand to Rowan's chest, then back to his chest, patting at his chest with emphasis, and pointed far off in the direction where he sensed Spirit.  Rowan nodded in understanding, and figured a plan.  Pointing to the hand that Stein used to represent Spirit's voice, she X-ed at it, trying to signify that they should ignore it, then pointed to his hand that represented Spirit's soul, looking back to Stein for a yes or no to her idea.  Stein only evaluated for a short time before nodding in agreement.

Motioning his hand for Rowan to wait a moment, he called out to Spirit, "SPIRIT!  ANSWER ME, VOICE OR SOUL, WHICH DO WE FOLLOW?"

The two waited, Rowan having no clue what Stein just yelled out into the distance, but sat patiently with him, listening for an answer.

Spirit groaned disdainfully, "Stupid…Evans…not my Maka…Stein…don-follow the…lil' brat…"

Rowan was now thoroughly confused and shot Stein a dumfounded look, he looked back at her and laughed with his head propped in his hand.  He knew: his disoriented friend thought Stein was talking about following Soul Evans, Maka's partner.  Amused, despite the circumstances, Stein stood up and held his hand out to Rowan.  Completely out of the loop of Spirit's response, Rowan took Stein's hand and he pulled her up  to stand with him—still holding Rowan's hand, Stein led the way towards the direction of Spirit's soul.

~*~

Maka was being cradled in Soul's arms bridal style.  They'd been standing in the courtyard in front of the DWMA for hours, watching carefully as the crowds stumbled back from the battle and Soul could tell that Maka was exhausted from balancing tediously on her crutches—not that she would ever admit it—so he hoisted her up for relief.  They'd seen many agents they teamed-up with in their lifetime, including Kid (carrying Liz on his back) and Patti tailing behind Tsubaki and BlackStar.  BlackStar, much to everyone's surprise, stopped in front of the couple that were left to observe, affectionately ruffled Maka's hair, and with a big smile and silent mouth (very surprising) caught the two in a group hug.  Tsubaki sniffled in joy as surgeons rushed past into the infirmary, one stopping to check Liz's pulse as Kid held her still on his back.  The surgeon offered to take her ahead with him and Kid obliged the doctor, gently resting an unconscious Liz in the surgeons arms—the man hustled carefully through the crowds, taking Liz to the front of triage.

"Maka, Soul." Kid called their attention with a fake smile.  "Come with me."

Kid waited patiently and Patti giggled as Soul literally had to beat BlackStar—now ranting incessantly about his superiority—off of Maka and himself.  Finally free of the blue-haired wonder, Soul tossed Maka's crutches to Patti and followed the reaper and his ditzy weapon into the school away from the triage line.  Maka recognized the path they were taking; they were going to see Lord Death.

"Kid?" Maka asked calmly.

"Hm?" he turned and began walking backwards to face Maka as she lay in Soul's arms.

Maka watched his emotionless gold eyes, "Did Stein's platoon win?" she pressed.

Kid felt a bit reluctant to say, "I won't lie to you Maka, our captain's haven't heard from Stein's men for three hours now.  That's why we're going to see my father."  With the final word, Kid turned on his heel to face forward again as Patti slammed open the doors to Lord Death's chamber, running around singing under the guillotines.
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A New Experiment