Soul Eater Fic: Center of Brilliance, Core of Darkness Part 2
Part 1Somehow, she always ends up back in her mother’s clutches. It’s terrifying to the point where she can’t speak, and some part of her tells her it’s ridiculous to be that way.
But she’ll reluctantly give Medusa credit for being able to pick a good hiding place. One right under their noses, additionally.
The whispers of dark gods still reach her through the thick, obsidian walls of a hidden lab on Derse, and they make her ears ring and she tries to shut them out.
Maka and Soul are here, too, just two cells over from hers. But Chrona just stays in her corner as memories of dead animals and humans and the faint echoing sensation of painful punches and throbbing bruises on her skull pass through her mind.
Ragnarok had long since died with her waking self, when she was infused with power on Skaia and her dream self permanently took over. It’s strange to think that this isn’t the body she was born with, despite the fact that it looks and feels the exact same. The only difference is she knows exactly how the universe of the energy works and how to manipulate it to her will. And she can’t deal with that.
She both grieves for her weapon, and feels guilty at the relief to be alone at long last. It’s in the dark of her cell that she finally cries for her loss.
Not three days after Soul and Maka were both captured by Medusa and taken to this dark planet, Chrona was, once again, caught with her guard down and killed in a sneak attack. It was much more frightening to die when you were aware of it coming.
Only she didn’t stay dead for too long.
She awoke in this dark cell with a collar strapped around her neck. She doesn’t know their purpose yet, but she knows it can’t be good.
Time loses meaning for what she doesn’t know is two hours, before her mother appears in the doorway again. She hadn’t seen her since she’d last destroyed her body. She’d gone on a rampage and reduced her to a puddle of blood and arrows.
Of course she’d survive. She would want to see the result of her work, wouldn’t she?
And even that’s failed.
(It is ridiculous. Knights hunt down witches, they burn them, slay them. They don’t cower in fear in a dark corner and wait for whatever fate has in store for them.)
“Come Chrona.” Medusa’s voice is curt, demanding, and she can’t help but obey on reflex. The Snake Witch leads her through the royal purple corridors that make up the structures and darkened streets of Derse. Her lab is standard to what her old ones used to be, but Chrona doesn’t have time to wonder where she’d gotten the equipment before her arm is yanked over to the examination table.
“I’m honestly amazed the black blood didn’t transfer to your dream self when you died.” Medusa comments casually as she’s strapped down. “It attaches to both body and soul, and yet…”
She cuts her cheek with an arrow, withdrawing it and examining the substance drawn.
Seeing red blood honestly disturbs Chrona more than she thought it would.
(Since waking up on Prospit, for the first time in her life the only voice inside her head was her own. No Ragnarok, no madness, even the voice of her shadow was gone. Maybe the city of gold was so bright it drove away all shadows. Maka tells her that people need light and darkness in their lives, but she’s been in the dark for far too long, and even though she can’t deal with it she embraces the light of Skaia and Prospit and the energy of the universe with open arms and an open soul.)
“My plans to instill chaos on the planet, gone, my life’s work, gone.” Medusa murmurs. None of them saw the end of the world coming the way it did.
“W-why did you kill me then? If I’m a failure, why did you put me on that quest bed?”
Chrona cringes at the grin that spreads across Medusa’s face, and even more so at the needle filled with black blood.
“You’ve revived as a god, Chrona.” She giggles. “Not a Kishin, but a god. You’ve all become gods. I think this is an entirely new area to test the black blood with.”
It’s to her own surprise that her body flat out rejects it. When she was first fused it, she’d been on the verge of death. Medusa is clearly disappointed, but wouldn’t give up.
And that’s when the collar around her neck activates.
Chrona screams and her body writhes as thousands of bolts of electricity shoot through her all at once. She feels a blinding flash of pain and then her life blinks out.
Coming to again was an uncomfortable affair. She aches all over and causes further agony. So she remains still and hopes she isn’t forced to move. All in all, though, she can’t help but admit that Medusa’s tactic of keeping her under control was a brilliant one.
Being shocked to death is a pretty pathetic way to die.
(They can only die and stay dead through acts of heroism, or if slain for their own corruption. How can she be a knight if she can only ensure her revival through selfish acts?)
“…hello? Chrona! Helloooooo?”
When the voice enters her head she shoots up, simultaneously causing herself great pain and calling out for Ragnarok and her shadow. To her own relief and disappointment, it’s neither.
“Oi! It’s Liz!”
“Liz? A-are you-“
“Two cells over. I’m in here with Patti.”
“B-but how did-“
“We got snatched, just like you. I swear I’m gonna strangle that bitch when I get out of here.”
“W-why is your voice inside my head? I-I can’t deal with that!”
“Relax, comes with the title.”
“Title?”
“I’m the Thief of Mind, remember?”
“Oh…”
“Yup. Check out what I can do.”
Chrona yelps at the sudden sensation of memories being drained out of her head, pulling and stretching to break free of the neurons and enter the mind’s eye of another. There’s silence in her head for about two minutes, her head throbbing somewhat with the echo of that literal brain-drain, before she hear’s Liz again.
“Yeesh. She’s really got this capture thing down to the letter, doesn’t she?”
“What d-did you do?”
“Basically, I stole your memories. Pretty neat, huh? Oh, and sorry about the migraine, it’ll pass soon. I’m also able to do this.”
She then feels a sense of nothingness. It’s somewhat frightening, but then there’s another in there with her and she’s pushed off the steering wheel and for a brief second her vision blurs.
She’s sharing eyes with Liz, and her voice is closer than ever.
“This is how I’ve been able to keep an eye on Patti whenever she’s somewhere else in the Medium. When she died she vanished from my vision and it fucking scared me to death…literally.”
“I’m sorry…”
“It’s no biggie. But that’s the last time I take advice from tentacle monsters.”
Tsubaki eventually joins them, but not after Chrona’s understood what Medusa’s doing. She’s experimenting with their title powers, and killing them pathetically when they don’t cooperate. At most, they’ve all died at least once while in her clutches, but none of them are dead yet. At least, not permanently.
(They’re found and rescued, not three days into her capture, and not without making Medusa pay for what she’d done to them. Karma proves to not necessarily be a bad thing: their rescuers were once rescuee’s, the tables turned unexpectedly. She’s never been happier to see Death City.
When the reunions are nearly through she’s embraced by the last person she expected. She can’t deal with it, or the sobs threatening to spill from him. Knights don’t comfort allies after a battle this way.
But they do protect princes.
Hoping that it’s the right thing to do she holds him back and lets him hide his face in her deep plum garb.)
XXXXXXXX“What’s it like to die?” He asks her, but he’s almost afraid of the answer. They’re nearing the end. In three days they will reach Skaia and face off against their final boss before the event that causes everything to be for naught. Their universe is growing slowly and they wait for the Speaker of the Vast Croak.
Chrona sits beside him on a rock. The winds of the colored desert have stilled and it feels as if the whole icipisphere is holding it’s breath, anxious to see their results of their trial. She turns her eyes skyward to lemonade pink and he thinks for a minute that she doesn’t want to deal with answering.
“It’s like…” She murmurs, softly so. “A lot of pain…and then it’s all dark. And then you’re back again…”
“How many times have you died? Counting the time Medusa killed you the first time.”
“…7…” She admits, and then Kidd groans at the asymmetrical number.
(Why is he still caring about symmetry? It shouldn’t matter anymore, yet it does, in it’s own selfish and ridiculous way to him.)
“I don’t know…” Chrona sighs. “…I’ve been dead practically all my life.”
“Because of your predicament during childhood? Though I really wouldn’t call it a predicament.”
“Mmm…”
They’re both silent again. Kidd reaches down and let’s both his hands dig into the green sand, lifting them up and watching the grains of rock filter through his palms, sparkling in the light. Chrona doesn’t speak for a long time.
“…I guess I needed to die to understand what living is…” She murmurs before long. The words tear at him.
(Maybe that’s what he needs to do. Die. If he doesn’t come back at least he won’t be getting in the way of everything anymore. And if he does, will he understand his purpose? What if it’s different for all of them?
But he’s too big a coward to allow himself to even face death.)
She jumps and splutters when his head leans on her shoulder, but it’s a formality, they both know it and he needs it. Really needs it. He’s no prince, no hero, no use to any of them the way he is now and it kills him on the inside.
He needs another minute to be selfish.
Chrona eventually stops blushing beet red and it lightens to a pleasant pink, and she lets him be selfish. Maybe it could work, he thinks. He doesn’t know how to die and she didn’t know how to live; both were in the wrong places in life and the universe has been laughing at them for a long time to come now. But he just laughs along and keeps lying to himself, while she accepts her fate.
That’s the true irony.
He eventually stands back up with a hard sigh and he despises the sympathy in Chrona’s eyes.
“I best get back to Death City. I’ve reached my final gate.”
“OK…” She replies softly, getting up and, apparently unconsciously, floats up into the air. Kidd scoffs and manages to shoot her a weak smile.
“Show off.”
He cuts off her stuttered apologies with a small wave and continues on his way.
(When he reaches his Denizen, he finds that Hades is nothing but a dark mass, speaking in riddles from the shadows and chuckling all the while. He mocks Kidd, tells him he’s got it all wrong and that he should get his head out of the clouds and see what’s right in front of him.
A Prince was never meant for the title of death, he tells him.
And it kills him to hear that, all over again.)
XXXXXXXXThe time arrives. Skaia is a bloody chessboard with fallen pawns, rooks, knights and bishops of black and white. The twin planets, long since locked in combat’s hold, are prepared to reach their checkmate.
The Black King is massive, he holds the White King’s sceptor in his hands and they prepare for the Reckoning. It’ll happen, but hours of planning for this day will hopefully pay off.
When Maka give’s the signal, they move. In the corner of her eye Chrona see’s Liz and Patti fire blast after blast and his face with their arm cannon’s, Black*Star manipulate time around him to slow him down, Soul create weapons from the blood on the battle field, Maka create storms and tornado’s to damage him, and Tsubaki turn the oncoming meteors against him. This is only something she see’s briefly before her arms move and manipulate the energy radiating from their adversary.
Concussive blasts, fiery flares, and electric bolts all come in the form of dark power that she is able to throw at him. She’s apart of a bigger mass of power that they all have,and she can feel it.
Not two minutes into the battle Black*Star is knocked out of the sky.
Kidd is distracted by his comrade’s fall and is hit as well. Chrona feels her blood freeze in her veins at the sight.
Liz, Soul, and Patti all move in rapid fire, lifting their friends from their crators and soaring higher into the sky.
“Get them to their quest beds!!” Tsubaki calls, the only one not panicking over their friends fatal injuries. Blood oozes from their bodies and heads and they have broken bones all over.
Chrona watches them fly off and returns her attention to their final boss. She is a savior of the waking world and she will help her friends win what they’ve worked so hard for.
(Death has more or less become a trivial thing for her. She can only die if she throws away her life for another or madness takes hold of her. Already she’d seen her friends die more than once. Some part of her tells her that she should be worried sick about whether or not they’ll make it in time.
But for once she hands her worries to Paradox Space. She’s learned to deal with death.)
XXXXXXXXWhen he’d been knocked out of the sky everything had hurt. He felt wrong all over but now he couldn’t even feel the pain. He’s healing wrong and his Shinigami powers are going haywire. This isn’t right at all. This shouldn’t be happening.
His trip through the Medium is quick, and he’s still kicking by the time he glimpses familiar lemonade pink skies and hears the winds of the desert. Liz sets him on white stone and both girls turn to leave.
“Wait…” He chokes out through his broken ribs. The Thompson’s both turn around, taking his hands and squeezing them.
“It’ll be OK, Kiddo!” Patti tells him, though he can hear pain in her voice. Liz simply leans down and places a kiss on his forehead.
“We’ll meet you on the other side.”
“It’s a date…” He murmurs softly. “L-love you both…”
“We know.” Patti giggles, and he grips both their hands tight.
“Go kick some ass.”
“Aye-aye, captain!~”
They both linger a moment longer, before the battle calls them back and they shoot off through the sky.
When the two are out of sight, Kidd pulls his alchemized gun from his holster, hand shaking with effort and fear, and he knows that he’s not dying fast enough.
The metal glints in the bright colors of the desert and he can’t seem to gather up the courage to pull the trigger. He’s a coward and he knows it. Always running away. He can’t kill himself.
But waiting to die is just as bad. It makes you think about things that you shouldn’t, it makes survival instinct kick in and the urge to fight back the iminent blackness takes over. He doesn’t want to die, he doesn’t want to face his death and he doesn’t want to pull the trigger.
How silly. Death is afraid of dying.
He shuts his eyes and surpresses the urge to drop the gun and let healing take over. But it won’t work. His consciousness knows that but his subconscious refuses it.
With trembling hands he presses the cold, metal barrel of the gun against his temple, taking deep breaths. It’ll be OK. He’ll wake up alive and powerful.
(What’s he’s afraid of most is that he won’t find a purpose waiting for him on the other side)
Kidd sucks in precious oxygen, holds the gun in a death grip, and pulls the trigger.
He doesn’t hear the crack, or see the flash, or even feel it.
He just see’s his father.
He’s a child again, following after his father into the death room and laughing and eager for his first lesson in becoming a death god.
He’s been told he’s a prince to the throne of the world, that he will take up guardianship of It someday.
‘Now Kiddo, the first thing you need to learn about death is what it is.’ He hears him say. He’s holding one giant white finger and they stand in the middle of swirly clouds and crooked crosses.
‘But isn’t death just disappearing?’ He inquires innocently.
‘Death isn’t always what it seems.” Shinigami-sama tells him. ‘You only know when a person is gone for good when you can’t feel their soul anymore, anywhere in the world.’
‘For good?’
‘I’ll tell you about that someday Kidd.’ He chuckles. ‘But to learn about death, you must also learn about life. It can’t exist without death, and death cannot exist without death. They are two sides of the same coin, you can say. Oh ho ho.’
‘Then what is life, father?’
‘That is something you have to find out for yourself.’
Life.
He really is an idiot.
(The answer was before him the whole time. He understands what life is now, what it means and what his father meant. It can’t exist without death.
He was Death.
And now he’s not.
But for the first time he’s OK with that. He would never be the perfect death god. The whole time he just didn’t want to make the effort of finding out what his purpose because he didn’t want to stray from his comfort zone of false order and false truths.
Now he’s faced with it. And it’s not that scary at all. Relieving is the word.
So he is a prince after all.
Just didn’t know what his purpose was.)
In the depth of nothing he remembers all this. And then everything is bright and his body hums with power. It burns and burns and burns him but it feels so good and suddenly he understands.
The universe, the battlefield, the Medium simply sing with energy and life and it’s not a physical thing, but he knows it’s there. It almost feels like a dream. He’s a savior of the dreaming dead.
He rises from his death bed and into the sky, and shoots like a bullet across the sky, heading for the battle.
When he get’s there he sees that Black*Star has ascended as well, clad in red constasting to his white clothes and hood and he’s stopped time completely around the Black King. The battle escalates.
It’s amazing how, with a movement of his hand, he can infuse the emtpy war machines left behind by the dueling planets with energy and bring them up. The move and they fire blast after blast at their final boss.
He feels rejuvinated and kinda like an idiot for the way he’s been moping all this time, but moreso the former. And he feels the hypothetical life force of everything at his control.
Kidd never was a god to begin with, he knows.
Now he feels that he is one.
(They win. Their universe grows to maturity and then the game is over. They’ve reached the ending cutscene. Everything goes soft and then they stand before the entrance to their new home.
Maka is ushered forward by a laughing Black*Star and Soul. She’s the leader. She get’s to open the door.
Kidd reaches over and takes the nearest hand. Chrona’s. He simply shoots a sincere smile, the first one he’s been able to make in weeks, and watches as they are engulfed in blinding light and taken away to their new home.)
XXXXXXXXShe’d never known that a planet could be so beautiful.
It’s fresh, free of pollution and everything is brand new. They appear in a field bordering the desert and the grasslands. And upon their first appearance in this universe, it rains.
Patti and Liz immediately throw off their hoods with a cheer and dance, running in circles and laughing and Black*Star and Tsubaki join them in jumping into the quickly forming puddles. Soul scoops Maka up and kisses her hard, both with tears running down their faces. Chrona falls backwards onto the grass with a smile on her face and Kidd’s runs to hug his weapons. She’d never known a place to be filled with such happiness and they’ve deserved it. They’re all alive and they’ve won and this wonderful new world is their reward and the white hot liquid trails along her cheeks only make it more real.
Death City is in the distance, with the other buildings taken with them when they first were transported into the game. They hear the cheering from the buildings and they know that everyone’s rejoicing to be somewhere safe at last.
When her blue-lavender eyes travel down from the fading stars peeking from behind the clouds and a gloriously bright sun begins to rise in the far horizon Chrona see’s Kidd standing over her in his white God Tier clothing. He’s not crying like the rest of them, but she can see him holding it all back. She can’t see a reason not to cry because it’s all finally fucking over and that brilliant creamy sunrise is the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen.
It’s a silent agreement that they have to get civilization started soon, one day, but that can wait. Right now Chrona just wants to dance in the rain with him and be a normal child for the first time in her life.
(And then they’ll talk. She’ll keep her mouth shut and Kidd will let so much tumble from his mouth that she feels like it’s something that would kill her if she kept so much worry and uncertainty inside her for so long.
He mentions how funny it is that they were both the wrong colors for along time to come now.
She agrees, but now, she feels colors don’t matter anymore.
Kidd just watches her, his brow furrows and he leans forward to kiss her, suprising her completely and he’s frustrated and has the grace of a coconut. She doesn’t mind, because she’s just as clumsy.
It’s been strange, the journey they’ve been on, and how it switched them in ways they did not expect; a center of briliance and a core of darkness that developed during their lifetime only to be reversed with a single keystroke.
And so began a fresh start in a universe that they shaped and molded themselves.
They’d be OK.)
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