Eating Souls, Act One: The Beginning

29: Enter Xander Saiphos! : Why are you here?

"YO!" Death greeted Leila, Stein and a very agitated Soul, "As you may have realized, Maka and Crona disappeared last night."

"Yeah, I noticed." Soul grumbled.

"Hmmyes well, Leila, Stein, your mission is to go find them."

"WHY CAN'T I GOOOOO?" Wailed Spirit. He was on his knees, begging Death, "MAKA IS MY MAKA AND I WANNA GO FIND HEEEERRRR....."

"I need you here." Death patted him on the head somewhat absentmindedly, "After you have found Maka and Crona, I want you to look around for anything... Unusual."

Stein raised an eyebrow. "Unusual? What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Weeeeelllllll....." Death scratched his mask, "There have been rather disturbing reports..."

Spirit stood and straightened his tie, "There have been reports that Witches have started attacking each other on sight. Actually that one Witch in particular seems to be hunting and killing weaker Witches, and we don't know why."

"And this is bad!" Death reminded them, pointing to emphasize the statement, "We need to stop this immediately! We don't want that Witch causing problems for Death Coven."

Stein and Leila both nodded. "What does the Witch look like?" Leila asked.

"Well, while we have information saying the Witch is getting closer to the city, I have.... No idea what they look like."

"That's cool." Soul remarked sarcastically, "And where exactly is my M-"

"MY MAKA!" Spirit shook the younger scythe vigorously, "DO YOU HEAR ME MAKA IS MIIIIIIIIIINE!"

Soul pushed Spirit away roughly, "Yeah, and she's my MEISTER, remember?"

"Just remember that she was mine first."

"Riiiight."

Leila laughed. "Well, I guess we'd better start looking."

Soul led the charge out of Death City. He scowled at everything and refused to talk.

Leila followed behind him excitedly. "It's my first mission as a Death weapon!" she exclaimed with a grin. She matched Soul's pace and used his shoulder as a place to rest her elbow. "Don't worry, Soul. We'll find Maka. We have a Death Whip on the job."

Stein followed them, laughing at Leila's enthusiastic and adorable attempts to cheer up Soul.

The scythe glared at her and shoved her away, "Get off. I'm a Death weapon too, ya know."

Leila's grin faded. "Alright, so we have two Death Weapons looking for them. Shouldn't that make you feel better?"

"I am a Death Scythe, Maka is not." he groused.

"Fine, sorry." Leila sighed. "Let's just find them."

A few long, boring days later they finally left the desert. Trying to sleep during the day was awful, but at least they had packed plenty of water. The mountains were a welcome change of pace, even if the foothills were bare except for scrub brush and weeds. They began their hike in silence, reveling in the shade when they finally reached the forest.

Stein continuously twisted his screw, trying to clear away memories of madness. The static was annoying, but not overwhelming. Leila took his hand with a gentle smile. She had heard from Maka and Tsubaki about Medusa's evil wavelength, and what she had done to Stein. Even recalling the story brought an ache to her soul. She couldn't imagine how

By the second day of the hike, Soul felt utterly lost. It wasn't cool at all, but he couldn't shake the feeling of failure. Soul frowned, "I don't know about this."