Maka's POV

I could feel my heartbeat resonating in the floor located underneath my aching chest, a soft cough fighting its way out between sore lips. Shaky gloved fingers were searching desperately for something I wasn't sure of, a scraping noise equivalent to that of rain on a leaky roof reaching my unprepared ears. Releasing another tired cough, I swore I could hear the quiet, yet reprimanding, mumble of my weapon degrading me once again for making a bad decision. Tentatively, I cracked open one of my eyelids, my retinas meeting a dim light, the concrete walls doing nothing but echoing back the glow of the candles nestled on Medusa's altar.

Instantly, my mind jolted awake, my body and its corresponding limbs at full attention. I was still in Medusa's hideout. I was… I was attacking her for killing my Crona, for making his heart stop calling out to mine, for making this hollow feeling in my bones reverberate throughout my entire being, calling out instead to black blood found wedged between lying organs and condescending hearts. It's terribly cliché and almost childish to say that she ripped the meaning of life right out from under my inattentive nose, the pink flurry of hair scratched from my eye sockets and the voice that could call out my name in such sweet tones… Gone, forever; all because of a witch that just wouldn't die.

I snarled the best I could, the sound coming out as nothing more than a guttural cough, my inner demon cursing my inability to even come off as intimidating. My knees scraped against hard concrete, my one thousand ton legs somehow managing to keep me afloat in this personal hell. My hands found the sore spot in my side, my mind finally recognizing the pain as Stein's soul force.

Scanning the hideout hurriedly, my eyes landed on nothing other than my white-haired weapon, his gravity-defying hair sticking up at odd angles behind the little headband he opted to wear every day. He was wearing this scowl that was only saved for me, his hands crossing his chest like only Soul's could, the very demeanor of his stance suggesting that, once again, I was a fool not to listen to him. His bangs were clouding his ruby red eyes, his teeth turning up in a smirk demeaning anyone willing to disobey his orders. A very heavy and frustrated sigh fell out of my lips, my screaming bones and joints carrying me over to him. I could feel the retort slinking around the air on his lips before he uttered it forth.

"You really are an idiot, Maka. You should know better by now not to use the black blood. It only drives you that much more insane." His smirk broadened, just challenging me to object to any of the words swimming from his lips. "You really should start listening to me."

I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of listening to Soul argue with me on a point that was oh so sensitive at the moment. It wasn't like he was watching the love of his life crumple into tiny pieces, never again to see the light of day or hold your hand or push away a stray strand of hair that just happens to fall into your eyes. No, he didn't have to deal with these terrible emotions that made me want to break down, die, fall apart and create chaos in my wake all at once, because it was my fault that arrow went through Crona's abdomen and not mine. I'm the reason why he's dead, why he's lying on the cold, cold floor with his blood seeping out of him in every way possible, displaying images you think would stay only in horror movies, the black pool doing nothing but mocking my folly. I hate Medusa. I hate myself. I hate that Soul can just stand there with this… This smirk on his face when I know he can just feel how much I hurt.

A growl dug its way into my throat, staying there as my feet swiftly carried me to my weapon, my forest green eyes threatening him in ways words never could. His jerky façade melted in front of my gaze, my thoughts wondering just what he saw buried deep within it. My feet parted in a wide stance, my fist meeting the concrete wall next to Soul's form with a loud, echoing bang, my breath escaping me in desperate, wild pants. I couldn't handle this. It wasn't fair of him to mock me, to basically tell me that yes, it was all my fault that Crona was dead because of me, and my attempt at revenge was nothing more than a childish game.

My lips parted in a scream only my lungs could muster, the sound sickening in its wallowing echo and broken tone. My eyes screwed shut so tightly I swear I could see stars, my fingers tearing at the gloves resting on my knuckles, throwing them in some wayward direction I could care less about. My receiving flesh found the wall next to Soul once again, the satisfying crunch of bone doing nothing to stop the heated hatred dwelling deep down in my soul, the inner demon threatening to come out once again. He asked for it, this, this monster I was becoming. I glanced up, my breath still flying from between my lips like steam from a kettle, this crooked grin taking over my face that irked something in my weapon's wavelengths. Throwing my head back, I cackled, the festering pot of emotions found in my gut stirring and stirring until I heard something in my soul crack.

"I'm not an idiot, Soul. What would you do if that was your lover over there, settling in an ocean of their own blood?" I knew that I was just digging myself into a deeper hole, but, at this point, it didn't matter. He needed to know how much this hurt me, how much this was literally tearing my soul apart. I thought I could see a shift in his mood reflecting in the deep pools of crimson that were his eyes, but he didn't respond; just stared me down and awaited my next utterance. "You don't even know how much this hurts, Soul." I spat out his name like one would spit out a wad of chewing tobacco, tossing it onto the floor and not caring whose foot stomped upon it. "He's dead. Do you not understand what that means or something? Can you seriously not hear of feel my soul wavelengths right now? Because don't you dare tell me that you can't or you don't care or you just don't."

I was seething, honestly. I can't remember the last time I had snapped at Soul like this, besides maybe when we were trying to link all of our souls together in that lesson with Professor Stein. The deep forests dwelling within my corneas locked onto Soul's Valentine's Day red, a deep scowl etching itself onto my face, my hands moving down to clutch onto my weapon's shoulders with much more force than was needed. I swear to whatever holy being above me that I was going to snap him in half if he kept looking at me like nothing mattered. I couldn't stop the tears before they rolled down my cheeks, leaving burning embers in their wake, pooling at my chin with a weight that felt like a ten-thousand pound chain.

"Do you really hate my decision that much, Soul, to overlook what just happened? Yes, the black blood is a terrible thing and I know that it doesn't necessarily make us that much stronger, but, look at him." I jerked my shoulder in the direction of a sight that I just couldn't look at anymore, begging him to at least try to understand.

I'm not sure if I looked absolutely pathetic or as hurt as a kicked puppy, but Soul's eyes melted into this fireplace the color of cinnamon mixed with cherries, and his lips flickered up into his trademark smile, stating that everything was going to be all right.

His hands reached up, patting my cheeks and ridding them of the stupid tears that were occurring way too often. The heat and anger that had just consumed me flew away like a fleeting memory, my bones going weary and heavy with a different kind of grief. I sagged against my weapon, a cry emitting again from tired lungs, my hands gripping onto Soul's sides like that could bring back my beautiful cuckoo. My ears received a slipping sigh from Soul's open lips, his leather coated arms wrapping around me. The whisper that left his lungs and buried itself into the air surrounding our close proximity made me feel like the fool he just claimed me to be.

"The least you could do is say goodbye to him, right? We'll get Medusa later, I promise. There's no way I'm going to let her get away with killing a good friend of mine." It simply amazed me how different Soul can be under the right circumstances. Where was the jerky guy I met only a minute or so ago?

He chuckled, the sound warming my chest like a heat pack meant for sore muscles. "Go on. I'll wait." He pushed me back gently, looking at me and nodding his head, his spikes lingering in the direction of Crona's frozen body.

I nodded as well, urging my feet onto the sight of disaster, my breath trapping in my chest, my canary fluttering and crying about in search of some kind of purchase. I willed myself not to think about the reason why he was dead, why he wasn't here beside Soul and I. I took a very shaky and unsettling breath, my chest beating with a heart that wasn't mine, my thoughts serenading with a boy that had captured my heart, even after he had maimed my weapon and drove our Professor into a fit of madness.

Somehow, my feet dragged my reluctant body to the sight of something that no lover ever wanted to grace their eyes upon. I swallowed down the sob lodged in my throat, my breath leaving my lungs in a whisper of his name, my knees colliding with the concrete, my hand wrapping around Crona's blood-soaked one.

He looked peaceful, like he could finally sleep without the scare of Medusa creeping forth and ripping any fond memories from his tortured brain. I couldn't repress the silent tear that tumbled down my cheek or the way my hands brought his own to my lips, kissing every knuckle that rested behind his timid flesh. I couldn't believe I was actually saying goodbye to the only person in the world that brought forth passion for something that wasn't turning Soul into a Death Scythe or brining pain upon that cheating father of mine. I couldn't believe that this was actually goodbye.

I leaned down, planting a few more kisses upon Crona's cheeks, my arms scooping under his sodden form. "I love you, Crona. I love you more than… Well, more than anything. More than absolutely anything." I then proceeded to bury my nose into Crona's blushing hair, my canary sobbing along with my bated breaths, my limbs locking around the one thing that I could never honestly let go.

My whole mindset was not ready for the waking of a half-dead Crona, or for the terrible coughing that emitted from him, claiming that he wasn't dead, that I didn't have to say goodbye to the only thing that really mattered. I tensed around Crona, my eyes cracking open, a gasp of my own meeting Crona's quiet coughs. I glanced over his face, another set of tears rolling down, a smile gracing my face. He smiled along with me, one of his beautiful blues popping open to gaze into mine, a quiet whisper floating out from his between lips that I couldn't believe were still moving.

"I love you too, Maka. More than anything."

I realize that this took me a long, long time to finish, and I really apologize for that.

I was stuck in this really bad writer's block and I just couldn't seem to find a way out of it.

But, yes, it's done, and I'm quite happy with it.

You should review, because that would make my day. ;D