Birthright

AN: FUCK IT! I wanted to send this one to get beta read first, but I started reading some of the old reviews and… I just… I feel so guilty! YOU GUYS DESERVE A DOUBLE POSTE, DAMN IT! You are by far the best readers an author (all be it a FanFic author) COULD HAVE (T_T) *bottom lip trembles*… SOOOOOOOOO I decided to write you guys a second chapter! SO yeah hope u guys enjoy!

And please never let anyone in this whole forsaken world ever tell you that you aren't awesome… trust me you are the epicest (So not a word) you on this planet and that will never change.

Chapter 35: A grand unveiling

Will the world ever be the same?

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… oh… oh man this is all just too good!"

Jack woke up to that strange sentence. He was half dazed, but he was still pretty sure he had heard that voice once before. Even so he was more annoyed at it for waking him up. He had finally slipped into a deep dreamless sleep and now this bastard was waking him up. So just as any self-respecting teenager would do he turned around and pretended to still be asleep in hopes that annoyens would go away.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't you play dead on me brat." The voice persisted, but Jack was already slipping back into his cold empty abyss. "Hey! Didn't you hear me? I SAID WAKE THE FUCK UP!" It came again followed by a hard slap to jack's face.

"WHAT THE FUCK ASSHOLE!" Jack yelled shooting upright. The boy was sitting in his room. It was a small cube of a room, done in a typical Japanese stile as per his father's preference. In the center of the room was a small table with no chairs, seeing as it was made so you had to sit on your heals in front of it. It was really a waist of space and only used for drinking tea, but he couldn't really get rid of it tanks to his father, once again. Jack was sitting up in his futon in the one corner of the room looking in the direction of the paper screen door that opened onto his father's prised rock garden. It was the only light source in the room, but the reason Jack was looking in its direction was the figure leaning into the half opened doorway. He didn't recognize who this guy could be, but he was fairly sure it was the dumb ass that slapped him just now.

"So this is your mindscape, huh kid? Damn, you must be one heck of a boring person. Or maybe you're some kind of mama's boy? Hehehehe." The dumb ass snickered.

"What the hell are you talking about, retard?" Jack asked rising from his futon and reaching for his Katana. The guy in the screen door was wearing a strange concept remake of the traditional ninja garb. He had a face mask drawn up to his nose, a high choler that matched the one Black*Star has and an emerald green scarf draped over his shoulders with both ends hanging down his back. His shirt was tight and sleeveless with the center of it dark grey and the split sides jet black. Separate sleeves were fastened with thin leather belts to his arms from the shoulders down to the wrists. He also wore tight – fitting, long, black pants with the same leather belts crisscrossing them and a dark grey loose cover over them that ended above the knees (like the lower half of an apron worn the wrong way around).

Just as Jack reached his sword he felt a grip on his shoulder and somehow he could feel the guy grinning behind him.

"Now, now kid. There aint no need for violence. After all I'm unarmed and come in peace fufufu." Jack was terrified. In some strange way he could feel that this guy didn't need a weapon to take him out. So he let his sword drop back down to the grass matting.

The intruder's grin deepened.

"Now THAT wasn't so hard was it!?" the ninja exclaimed clapping Jack on the back making him stumble forward out of his futon. The black haired teenager spun around to face the intruder and came face to face with him for the first time. The guy's pitch coloured hair was short and spiky, his horrifying grin showed right through his mask and his emerald green eyes were glowing twistedly.

"Well kid not to be a bummer, but it seems I gota hand the ranges back to you for a while. After all I can't drive and keep this weak hunk of meat from falling apart, now can I." The weirdo said as if Jack was supposed to understand what he was talking about.

"Wait I-"

"Oh and I hope you're a masochist, 'cause this is gona hurt like hell!" Those were the last word's Jack heard before he was shoved back into his body. There wasn't time to think about anything before the intense pain broke him out of his stopper. The torn up boy couldn't even register where he was other than the fact that he was gasping on the ground trying to scream his lungs out. It was like every atom in his body was trying to tear itself loos at the same time. It was hard to believe he could even remain conchies at all.

Then Jack felt it.

Even through the agonizing pain he could feel that much power. Through some miracle he was able to focus enough to see a bit of what was going on around him. He was in a broken down, cavernous room and in front of him three people were standing with their backs turned away from him. One was flying on something and all three were facing the point where all that power was radiating from.

Jack's memories started trickling back. As if pulled by magnets, the boy's vision finally locked onto the most heart wrenching sight imaginable, just a few feet away. Tears streamed down the shattered boy's face. He cursed the man who had forced him back into this situation and somehow he managed to crawl forward.

The pain was unbearable and Jack was sure he would die at any second, but little by little he made the impossible journey. After everything they'd been through, Jack owed her at least that much. For that reason he pushed on so that he could spend his last moments next to his weapon, his partner, his best friend and his first love. He would die next to Caitlin and not even the devil himself could stop him.

Sarah's back was going numb from the pain. When Mereck grabbed hold of her as the giant gusts of wind started blowing the mark that was tattooed between her shoulder blades seemed to freeze over like an interknit pattern of 3rd degree frost bite. Even so she clung to him for dear life. No way was she losing him again.

Looking over her should Sarah saw the strange scene of Kid Maka and Black*Star staring down a bunch of nasty looking villains and 2 incredibly strong witches. Even without soul perception she could tell what they were. Then suddenly the unexpected happened. The winds had stopped and the silent tension in the air could be cut with a knife. You couldn't help but sit and wait to see who would start the fight. However, instead of someone dashing forward for the first blow the hooded witch with the most power started laughing and pulled her hood down. What Sarah saw then shocked her to the very core.

The woman was gorgeous, as all witches were, but she had a few distinct features that stuck out. Her raven black hair framed a pail face adorned with two beautiful golden eyes and had three white lines ringing her head at the top. All things considered she looked exactly like a female version of Death the Kid. From the look on the young Lord Death's face and the other 2 master Meisters they hadn't been expecting this either.

"Hahahahaha… my oh my… who would have guessed at this scene? I do apologise for my outburst, but it's just all so perfect that I couldn't stop myself." The woman said in a delicate sing-song voice and light British accent. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lady Vivian L. Grimwar or more commonly known as Death's mistress." She continued with a curtsy. Kid's mouth was gaping and all eyes were turned on him. No one asked the obvious question. "It's nice to finally see you after all these years my son" Lady Vivian finished and a resounding ""whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-"erupted from his 6 companions.

Kid remained speechless. Death only knew what was going through his head, but Lady Vivian simply continued her one-sided conversation as if this was a "normal" mother son reunion.

"Well I must say you have grown to be a strapping young man. You remind me so much of your father… Oh now that brings back memories…" and with that the witch seemed to be off in her own world, (Seems she was having a Caitlin moment… somehow) mumbling incoherent things and blushing until finally the woman next to her said something quietly. "Oh I know this isn't the time Leona, but I can't help myself. You know how it is-"

"Wait just a minute!" Kid interrupted finally, "How can you claim to be my mother when I've never heard my father mention a single thing about you? And how could my mother even be a witch when my father hunted them down all his life? None of this makes sense."

"Oh my you've really been left in the dark haven't you my dear boy? Oh well no matter, we will have time to catch up soon enough. For now let me just say that you don't know everything about your father's past." With that she turned her gaze towards a big pile of rubble and then to Sarah and Mereck who were still clinging to each other. "Well it seems the children of today are a lot more aggressive then when I was that age. Oh how glorious youth is." Death's mistress said with a mischievous smile and Sarah blushed a bit. "Now, Leona my dear. Please see to my grandson over there while I take care of my clumsy subordinate, will you?" She finished with a nod toward Mereck.

Leona gave a small nod and descended slowly.

"Hold on just a-" Kid and the rest started to rush in to interfere, but were suddenly shot back.

"Oh come now. No need for that young ones. You will understand everything in a moment so just be patient." Vivian said with her finger held up. It seemed as if she was keeping the three strongest meisters in the DWMA on the ground through the tiniest of whims. The trio visibly strained to get up to no avail.

Finally Leona landed Next to Mereck and Sarah. She lowered a sack (that no one had noticed before for some reason) to the ground with a small clank. While she undid the string holding the burlap closed she pointed a small glare at Sarah.

"Move girl" was all she said with those steely hate filled eyes.

"N-no. I won't let you touch him!" Sarah managed to protest. Leona let out a sigh and her vision slid toward her oblivious, cringing son. For a split second Sarah thought she saw something flicker in the witch's eye. It might have been petty, longing, hate or nostalgia Sarah couldn't be sure as tears were welling up in her own. After all, her back felt like it was being torn apart and their situation seemed completely hopeless.

"Look girl. My mistress has a purpose for this boy and in this condition he isn't of much use to anyone. I'm trying to save his life, so move." Leona said coarsely and shoved the girl out of the way.

"Is that all you have to say?" Sarah demanded tears trickling down her face. Sarah noted a small rumbling coming from the rubble Vivian was attending, but she didn't pay it much mind.

"What are you babbling about?" Leona asked in a bored town of voice while clamping something onto Mereck.

"He's your son damn it! Aren't you worried about him at all?"

"No more than I would worry over a prise winning pumpkin or rose garden." Sarah froze. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. She knew her own mother could be a pain and that they weren't on the best terms all the time. But to think a parent couldn't care more for their child than they would a giant vegetable… It was horrifying

"W- What?"

"Did the boy ever tell you what his name means?"

"His… what the hell are you talking about?"

"The name Mereck, it is derived from the witch word me're which means "to test". In short His name is nothing more than a label that marks him as my experiment…"

Finally something in Sarah snapped.

"Get… away from him…" Sarah whispered, her arm taking on the shape of her black blade.

"Hmmm?"

"I said: GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU SICK BITCH!" Sarah yelled and charged, but before she knew what had happened she was lying face down on the ground next to Mereck.

"Don't make me laugh girl. You have no hope against me in your current condition. You're lucky Lady Vivian has a purpose for you too or I'd have killed you the moment our eyes met." There was obvious venom in Leona's voice, more so than usual. Sarah couldn't even look up to see the witch's expression. All her strength had been spent. The witch was right. Sarah was less than useless right now. "And don't act as if you are any better than I am girl. After all, my son wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for you…" And just like that Leona was gone.

'What did… she… mean?' Sara's last thoughts echoed in her head before she joined her meister in the black void again.

"Ah! I thank ye' kindly mad'm fir diggen me outa dem rocks. I had no' been expect'n da' brat to come in swing'n a scythe tha' big." A thick Scottish voice boomed from the cleared pile of rubble. Kid couldn't see the owner's face since he was being pinned to the floor, but he had a fare idea what had happened and who it was.

"Try not to let it happen again Gavin. It's a lot of trouble to keep brining you back like this."

"Ah'corse mad'm. Never again. I sware it on ma pride as a born cheltic-"

"Save the pointless drivel for later." Vivian said just as the underground room gave its last shudder and large boulders tumbled down bellowing giant clouds of dust up into the streets of Las Vegas above…

From the wreckage of the Gorgon casino arose two giant green orbs into Vegas' night sky. In one were suspended Leona, Vivian and all 4 of her undead underlings. In the other were suspended all the meisters and weapons that had been part of the underground fighting.

"What is this!?" Death the Kid demanded. "Why save us Vivian!?"

"Oh, my boy I'd prefer it if you would address me as Mother or mom or something more endearing, really. However to answer your question I simply wish to show you all the fruits of the fighting and loss you have endured." Before Kid could ask what she meant Maka drew his attention to the streets.

"Kid look." Following the 3* meister's gaze Kid gasped in horror. The streets of Las Vegas were flooded with the gored bodies of the dead, but they weren't just any dead bodies. Above every single corpse hovered the blood red soul of a kishin.

"What happened here?" Liz's voice came from one of Kid's pistols.

"Woh" Patty's came from the other.

"Damn, those sure are a lot of Kishin souls." Black*Star whistled.

"Is it even possible for there to be so many in one city?" Tsubaki asked.

"Not that I've ever heard of." Maka answered.

"Man, something like this… isn't cool at all" Soul added.

"It can't be." Kid said in wide eyed horror. "YOU DID THIS!" He yelled at Vivian.

"Well now how perceptive of you." Vivian applauded with a motherly smile. "You are indeed your father's son, my boy. Yes, I'm afraid I am the culprit behind this bloody massacre. While you were all fooling around underground trying so hard to save this city and your students my minions have been busy infecting the city's water supply." Vivian held up a small vial of red swirling liquid. "It's a concoction of my own design. It stimulates a person's darkest intentions. In short: I made these Kishin and killed every single one of them."

"But, why? Why would you senselessly slaughter all of these people!?" Kid demanded furiously.

"Oh come now. You must have figured that out by now." Vivian teased with her smile changing from motherly to sly.

"OH NO! KID!" Maka yelled and the Lord of the dead turned to an even more sick and disturbing scene than it had been a minute ago. One by one the red orbs were winking out and in their place rose mangled and decrepit corpses barely recognizable as human bodies.

"You see I earned my title as Death's mistress long before you were conceived my son. Now consider this the official declaration."

"Damn it! No matter whom you are. This is an unforgivable act. Mother or not, today you have made an enemy of death itself."

"From today on my boy."

"We are"

"AT WAR!"

Mereck opened his eyes slowly. It hurt because of the sudden light and his dry eyelids. He had to blink a few times before he could focus his blurry vision. When it finally cleared up he noticed he was in his room back in DC. The wall next to the door still had the cracked indent of where Sarah had flung him once. And the random bat still leaned against a mostly empty dresser. The walls were still a deep blue and his closet still an out of place bright white. Then he noticed Sarah. She was asleep with her head on her arms next to him. The events that seemed to have taken up most of their life even though it had only been a few days played through his head again. He couldn't help but smile a little.

"We've been through a lot haven't we?" He whispered and stretched out his hand to pat her head, but then he froze. Bothe his forearms had silver gauntlets fastened to them. He tried to take them off, puzzled over why he was sleeping with armor on.

He pulled at them and probed for latches, but there seemed to be no way to take them off. More over every now and again he felt a dull thud of pain ripple through his hands and feet. Suddenly Mereck noticed the scribbles etched into the metal. These gauntlets were artifacts of binding. They had been a part of an ancient spell to lock away the magical power of a witch condemned by her sisters. He had spent many days helping his mother study the remnants of this ritual so he knew some of what it was for. The thought of having his magic locked away constricted Mereck's chest and brought tears to his eyes.

After calming himself down, Mereck tried to summon a flame in his hand. He readied himself for the crushing reality, but somehow it worked… a bit too well. The flame roared into the air and caught the curtains on fire. In a panic he tried to douse the flames, waving his hands and blowing at it, but that only seemed to make things worse.

All of a sudden there was water everywhere and the black haired boy looked up to see Sarah holding a big bucket over his head with an angry look on her face. Quickly taking in the dented wall again Mereck shot his armored hands into the air. A sign of surrender and a plea for mercy.

"S-Sarah! G-good morning! I- uh I-" The teenage warlock tried to stammer an explanation to no avail. That's when Sarah did the most unexpected thing ever… she hugged him.

Mereck's deadly weapon partner had her arms wrapped around him so tight he struggled to breath. And that's not even counting the reminder that he had about 5 broken ribs. However he wouldn't stop her. Even though it was like being strangled by a boa constrictor, there could be no better feeling in the world for Mereck. He leaned in and returned the embrace in kind.

"I'm so glad you're back." Sarah sobbed into Mereck's shoulder and he couldn't hold back his own tears anymore. It felt like ages the two of them sat there holding each other, shedding tears of unburdened relief and boundless joy.

They finally pulled away when they heard someone enter the room.

"OH MY GOSH! That was so cute! Le'me in on that action!" Shizuka came storming through the door and pinned them both down on the bed with laughs and giggles like a little girl in doll factory.

"Shizuka, don't just tackle down an injured person. Didn't I scold you on that after what happened with me at the hospital?" Shadow*Star said rolling in on a wheel chair.

"I know, I know Shade, but I can't help it! I'm just so unbelievably happy." Shizuka said jumping into the air after letting go of her 2 friends.

"Don't tell me she's the reason you're in that…" Mereck said pointing at the wheelchair with a metal hand.

"No, no. that's just a result from almost being killed in a fight no one seems to be able to recall." Sarah answered for him.

"I'm telling you guys it really happened!" Dante's voice came as a loud growl as he also entered the small room.

"Easy big guy no one's calling you a liar." Sirena responded from on top of his shoulder. She had changed into younger version of herself easily 8 or 9 years old.

"L-little sis!?" Mereck shouted looking at her for the first time since he had killed his mother Leona.

"Oniiiiiiiiiiiii-chaaaaaaaaaaan!" Sirena Yelled as she dived off of the big werewolf's shoulder and onto her brother's lap. "I'm so happy you're finally awake! I've missed you sooooooooo much!" she continued as she nuzzled her head into his chest. "Wow, you're so big now Onii-chan!" She noted pulling away from him.

"And yet you are as small as ever! How long is it going to take for you to finally start looking older than me?" Mereck retorted with a laugh.

"Well actually-" Dante tried to say something, but ended up with an elbow in the gut.

"Who knows!" The small girl finished for her big friend.

"Oh, Sirena are you ok?" Mereck asked noticing the bandage on her forehead.

"Yeah I'm fine, nothing a witch like me can't handle!" She answered with her chest puffed out proudly.

"And yet you kept whining when prof. Stein was putting the bandage on, you little midget…" Dante grumbled in the background.

"Now, now Fido it's not nice to pick on little girls. Or do you have some sick fetish that is yet to be discovered." Jack teased finally joining the party covered in his own assortment of bandages from head to toe.

"You wana go emo porcupine!?" Dante barked back.

"Gladly, let's take this-"

"Come now you two! No fighting while your friend's still sick in bed." Caitlin said grabbing the two by their ears and leading them to the group near Mereck's bed. Surprisingly she was the only one with no sign of injuries on her. She did however look a little more tired than usual

"Wow… It's hard to think after all that everything is going to go back to normal." Mereck said wiping the tears from his eyes. 'Yeah after all the screwed up shit we've been through. It looks like we all made it out alive.'

"Yeah ummmmm… normal isn't really a word I'd use." Sarah said with a small smile.

"Yeah we really need to catch you up" Jack said and started laughing for no reason in particular.

"Whatever… It's just good to be back."

AN: Well I wish I could say that escalated quickly, but really it's been a hell of a long build up to this moment. I apologies for the length of this chapter I know it was boring, but I had to get this shit out of the way so we can finally get out of Vegas and I didn't think more chapters were what we needed so yeah I hope you are looking forward to what's gona happen next. It will be a while till the war actually happens so I am opening the pools!

If there is any kind of chapter you want me to write like one shot material: date scenes, flash backs or anything of the like leave it in a review or pm me. The story is now open to the public for a while. In the mean time I'll be doing some semmy flashbacks on the recovery of the other characters. First up will be Caitlin's meraculis revival. I've been looking forward to this since I killed her off he hehe hehehehehe BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-

Reaper out…