Kid walked out of breath towards Lord Death's office. He ran around the whole school about three times to make sure his weapons wouldn't find him for a while. As he walked closer a thought dawned on him. 'How am I supposed to save Father from Spirit without any weapons?' He stood near the door and heard his father's high pitched voice, meaning he wasn't dead yet, even if he couldn't make out the words. This sent a small wave of relief over him, but it was interrupted by Spirit's muffled reply. Curious what they were talking about, Kid stealthfully went right up to the door without opening it and listened in with his sensitive grim reaper ears. He didn't have to listen for very long though.

'Lord De-' the death weapon started

'Spirit, how many times do we have to have this conversation?' Lord Death interrupted, 'Kid's keeping that stupid fish and that's final. It's actually improving his obsession and it's only been a few days. Imagine what a few months would do!'

'What about his madness of order!'

The two argued some more, but Kid stopped listening. He started walking away from the door and toward the front exit of the school. His palm lifted so he could see the fish that had been the center of his focus for the last couple of days. "So he did notice. He knew from the beginning, didn't he?" Kid asked Mr. Shimmers. The fish squirmed in reply, probably trying to get out of Kid's hand. The young shinigami gripped it again, making it immobile as he walked steadily out of the school and down the steps.

His steps took him in a mostly straight line. Down the steps, past the markets, and past the houses. Nothing broke his steady pace and blank stare at the floor until a familiar voice said "Hey, you're one of Maka's friends, aren't you?"

Kid looked over to see the witch-like black cat walking on the floor beside him. "Yeah," Kid mumbled. He looked back at the stones in front of his feet as he walked.

"Awe, you okay kid?" Blair asked. She smiled coyly and purred "If there's anything that I could do..."

"Actually, you like fish don't you? Could you eat this?" Kid asked. Blair was caught off guard. She made a mental note to not to hit on the striped haired friend of Maka anymore. Nevertheless, she caught the fish Kid threw at her in her mouth. Immediately, the cat spit it into one of her front paws.

"That taste terrible!" She exclaimed. "And it's so hard. I couldn't chew it up to eat it even if I wanted to."

"That's what I thought too," Kid said. "Too big to swallow but impossible to cut. I guess an elephant could eat it if they weren't herbivores."

"Why do you want it eaten?" the curious cat asked.

"It betrayed me," Kid mumbled vaguely.

"Oookay then," Blair said. She turned into a human and strolled beside Kid. Since she had nothing better to do, she decided to follow Maka's friend until she got bored. "So where you headin'? You know, Chupa Cabra's having a sale, we should head there!"

"No, that won't do," Kid said, "It's inside the city. I don't have a particular place in mind, it just has to be outside of the city."

"Why?"

"He won't be able to follow me."

Blair's cat-like ears fell and she looked at the floor. "Oh," she said. Disappointed in how little Kid was telling her, she just followed in silence for a while. "Where'd you get the fish anyway?"

"Someone who despises me reached into the depths of his hatred and retrieved a device that is perfectly constructed to torture me and it just so happened to look like a fish," Kid said.

"Do you hate fish or something?" Blair asked.

"I'm indifferent, usually. There aren't any prominent fish witches, and besides this one they're fine enough."

Blair continued to try and start a conversation, but Kid responded with very vague answers. Eventually, they got to the edge of the city.

"Are you going to walk across this entire dessert?" the human-cat asked.

"Maybe, but maybe not," Kid answered. " you see that line in the sand?" he asked and pointed to the ground. As he said, the sand had a very slight groove that was easily missed. It curves in a perfect circle all around the cities edge. "As long I'm anywhere past that I'd be fine. I could be aimlessly roaming the Desert for days or weeks. Maybe along the way I'll find a good place to leave the fish so that he can't force Spirit to find me."

"Maka's dad? Can he talk to fish or something?"

"No, it has a tracking device in it."

Blair smiled. "I can take care of a silly tracking device," she purred. "Pum pum pumpkin!" She exclaimed. An orange poof appeared around the fish. "It shouldn't be trackable anymore."

"Thank you, Blair," Kid said.

From then on Kid walked in silence. Eventually, Blair got bored. She looked behind her to see how far away Death City was. The cat made a giant pumpkin for riding. "You sure you don't want to go to Chupa Cabra?" Blair asked as she jumped onto the floating fruit.

Kid shook his head in reply. Without another word, Blair flew into the distance as Kid kept walking forward.

After a while, Kid came across the giant sand crater that he and his weapons made when they first got the fish. It was more shallow than before, but still absurdly stared at it. He stepped into it, sliding down to the bottom. The reaper released the fish from his grasp and layed on the crater's bottom, watching the clouds float by.

"I found ya!" Patty exclaimed as she barged through the doors to the mirror room. She looked around to only see Lord Death and Spirit, so she shrugged. "Or maybe not."

Liz trudged after her sister out of breath. "Is he there?" she asked.

"Nope."

Liz groaned, then she glared at Lord Death. "This is all your fault."

"What is?" Lord Death asked.

"Kid's gone crazy because of your bad taste in fish!"

Lord death stared blankly at his son's weapon partner. Spirit looked at him. The two thought the same thing. They knew the facade wouldn't last long, so Lord Death could either come clean and hope Liz and Patty go along or continue to lie and make the sisters figure it out themselves.

"Bad taste in fish?" Lord Death asked.

Spirit sighed. 'Of course he goes with the second one.'

"Yes! I've lived with Kid for only a couple of years and I would have been able to tell that that slimy monster would make him really devastated, disgusted, angry, or something like that! You're his father for crying out loud! You of all people should be able to tell that he hates the fish!"

"Mm-hm. I see," the death god mumbled. "But have you ever thought that maybe I chose that fish for a reason?"

Liz's jaw dropped. "YOU KNEW KID HATED THAT STUPID THING THE WHOLE TIME!" She yelled.

Patty laughed. "Looks like you owe me five bucks sis!"

Liz glared at her but quickly moved her fiery eyes back to Lord Death. "HOW COULD YOU!"
"There's no need to yell," Lord Death said. The proceeded to tell the twin pistols the whole plan he had with the fish.

"So it was supposed to make Kid less obsessive," Spirit finished.

The weapons exchanged looks. Kid did skip his daily symmetry check for the first time for months, and probably the first intentional time ever. Lord Death could see the look on the sister's faces. "Once he cares about symmetry at a normal level, we'll tell him, but until then-" he started.

"Yeah, I get it," Liz mumbled. "Don't tell Kid…"

Patty smiled. "That'll be easy, won't it sis? If we can't find Kid, we can't tell him anything!"

"I'll go find Kid," Spirit said. He went to the machine that locates the tracking device.

"You know he'll find out eventually, right?" Liz asked.

"Yes, Spirit won't stop telling me, but like I keep telling him, it's for the greater good."

"Greater good?" Patty asked, in a much harsher tone than usual. "He is your son. He's the greatest good you're ever gonna get."

An eerie silence wiped over the room as Lord Death stared at Patty. The grim reaper seemed to be genuinely thinking about Patty's words, but as a smile slowly crept across her face and she started laughing it was obvious she barely meant it.

Lord Death was about to say something, but Spirit beat him to it. "I can't find the fish," he said.

"WHAT?" Lord Death asked, "But that's impossible!"

Spirit looked as worried as Lord Death sounded. "I know!"

"What do you mean it's impossible?" Liz asked.

"Something really powerful would have to happen to through it out of range. Either Kid suddenly got power that he shouldn't get for another twenty years, or something else entirely is involved. Something non-human." Spirit explained.

Patty tilted her head as her sister turned white. "Something non-human?" Patty questioned, "Like a giraffe?"

"Or like a witch?" Liz asked. "He wanted to go to kishins and witches before, and we convinced him to go to Excalibur instead."

"That could be a problem…"

After about a half an hour of class without Kid and his weapons, Maka assumed they went home. She tried to focus on the notes, but that became especially hard as Spirit came running in. "Stein, we need you for something. It's urgent."

"What is it?" The professor asked his ex-weapon. His eyes were hidden by the glare of the glasses.

"Well," the death scythe make eye contact with his daughter for a second and moved closer to Stein. He talked quieter so she wouldn't have to get involved again.

Maka tried to hear them, but couldn't. Stein turned his heads towards the students, but he didn't look at anything in particular. The shine was gone, so Maka saw him close his eyes for longer than usual and open them wider. He smiled and looked back at the weird creature he was cutting apart. "Good luck with that Spirit."

"What! What kind of response is that! This is life or death! We could get fired!"

"He's fine, physically speaking, and isn't moving either. Mentally, though,"Stein's smile widened, "I'll need to dissect his brain before I could ever try fixing that."

Spirit was too worried about Kid that he hardly paid notice to Stein's insanity. "Can you at least tell me which direction he's in?" Stein pointed basically straight ahead of him.

Maka could tell that they were talking about Kid by what she heard. When Stein pointed, she glanced that way and looked for his soul herself. She gasped at what she saw.

"Why don't you take your daughter with you? She could show you where he is," Stein suggested.

"But I don't want to involve her in this."

Maka stood up. "Professor Stein, do I have permission to go with Spirit?"

Stein nodded, so Maka started coming down the stairs. Soul stood up but got immediately told that 'he only gave permission to Maka', so the scythe sat back down. "Not cool," he mumbled.

"I'll be back, Soul. Don't get into trouble," Maka told her weapon, then left the room, her dad close behind.

Stein continued his lesson as if nothing ever happened.

"Maka?" Liz questioned.

"Yeah, Stein was no help," Spirit said.

"What happened to Kid? His soul's a mess," Maka asked.

Patty started swirling her finger near her head. "He went craaaazy," She said.

Liz ignored her sister. "You've seen Kid's soul? Is he okay? Is he close?" She asked.

Maka nodded. "He's close, and professor said he's not hurt. I can take you to him." They all started walking towards the front doors of the school, but Spirit stopped them.

"Maka, you should go back to class. Kid isn't thinking straight right now, so just let your papa handle this, okay?"

Maka glared at him. "Wasn't he trying to kill you?"

"Arrest actually," Spirit mumbled.

"Well, if anyone shouldn't go, it should be you," Maka said.

"But Maka-"

"Don't worry Spirit, we know Kid well enough to protect Maka if anything goes wrong," Patty said with a smile.

"And Maka's right, you'd probably make it worse," Liz added.

After only a little more arguing, Spirit agreed to stay back at the school and the three girls headed off towards the desert. By the time they got to the crater, Kid hadn't moved at all. His eyes still stared at the now completely clear sky.

"Kid, what were you thinking?" Liz asked. "You had us worried. Why don't you just come out of the hole? Then we can go home and just learn to live with that stupid fish."

Maka was staring at the hole while Liz talked. "Wow… That's really deep. How'd that even get there?"

"That happened when we shot Mr. Shimmers a lot with death cannon. Only Kid can get out of it with Beelzebub, so it's probably better if we don't go down there," Patty said.

The scythe meister nodded. On the way over, the sisters told her some of the background around the fish and all of the things Kid did in desperation. Although, the emotions emitting off of his soul didn't completely make sense with the story that Maka got.

"Come on Kid," Liz said, "It's really hot out here. And then the sun's going to set and it'll become really cold." The young grim reaper still didn't respond in any way.

Patty shrugged. "I guess he doesn't wanna come out."

The elder sister sighed. "But staying there would only make it worse for him. He's probably already lost in his own delusions. Got any ideas?"

Patty thought for a second. "No, not really."

"Alright then," Liz mumbled. She looked back at her meister. "Hey, Kid, didn't you leave the house early today so your dad would be happy with you? What do you think he would say if he could come out here?"

This finally got a reaction out of him. He sat up straight, putting his hands in the sand behind him. The golden eyes that were watching the sky moved onto the two weapons. Kid still didn't say anything though, he just stared.

Maka could feel only a subtle change in Kid's soul, but it was enough for her to guess what happened. "Oh," she said, "I know what to do." She sat on the sand with her feet hanging over the edge of the crater. "Wish me luck," Maka said. She pushed herself and slid down to the bottom with Kid.

"Good luck!" Patty called while her friend glided down. Liz didn't say anything, but instead, she watched with intrigue.

When the scythe meister eventually got to the bottom she stood up and dusted off her skirt. Kid didn't pay any attention to her, even when she sat down next to him. With her eyes closed, she concentrated on the souls around her. It's a similar trick to what she did to Crona back when the Kishin was still under the DWMA. It seemed so long since she's floated in the thick, viscous air.

A bright blue soul appeared before her. 'That's my soul,' she thought. 'It's grown.'

Another soul caught Maka's eye. Two actually, and they both seemed really far away. 'That must be Liz and Patty's.' The young meister started looking around again. 'Now where's Kid's soul?' she asked herself.

Two more souls appeared, much closer to her this time. One was a very dull blue and tiny. Its tail wiggled around frantically, as if it was either very excited or scared. The next one was slightly darker than the normal shade of a human soul. It was larger too. Maka moved up to the second soul, dismissing the first one as the fishes. She embraced the familiar soul and felt something that she couldn't describe.

She opened her eyes, but she wasn't in the hole anymore. Instead, it was a big room with all four of its bright white walls the exact same length. In each of the four corners were pillars, each with a vase perched on top. In the middle of the room was a black and white throne and another pillar with a vase only a couple feet in front of it. Other than that, it looked empty. Maka looked behind her to see a large double door.

"Sorry," Maka heard Kid say. It startled her a little bit. She turned back around and Kid was sitting on the throne. "I wasn't expecting company." Kid stood up and started walking around the middle pillar. "But when does anything ever really go as expected?"

"What is this place?" Maka asked.

Kid ignored her and walked to the pillar on Maka's right. He picked up the vase and stared at it. "I never bought this, but here it is. How unexpected." It really was a beautiful vase, they all were. With bounds of detail on each one, they looked very unique and fancy. "I grew to love this vase. Always in the corner, never bothering to change. It was nice." He threw it on the floor, shattering it. "But then one day it lost its appeal. Now, isn't that unexpected."

"That looked expensive," Maka said.

"It doesn't matter," Kid said. He walked to the vase on the other side of Maka. "But what does matter is balance." He pushed that vase off, breaking it. "You can't just lose one and not the other." Maka watched as he went to the last two in the corners and broke them too. "Vertical balance is important too."

Only one vase was left: the one in the middle. Maka walked up to it. It was by far the fanciest with diligently carved black curves loomed on top of a marble-like base. Kid joined the other meister in looking at it.

They both stared in silence until Kid grabbed it. "Wait," Maka said. Kid did and he looked at his friend. "Don't break it."

"Why shouldn't I? Yeah, it was nice, but I don't need it anymore. The other four were the only things keeping it here."

Big green eyes looked sympathetically into golden ones. Kid turned his gaze onto the vase. "I've done this too. The breaking felt great as I did it, but it left all this glass everywhere. I thought it would be fine since I had more vases across the hall, but they went away. I had to make my own vases, but they were never as good as those ones I broke. You can still keep your original." Maka took the item from the reaper's unreluctant hands and put it back onto its place. "Originals are always the best. They're the ones that have been there the whole time." Maka smiled. "Trust me."

Kid looked back up at her. "You're right," he mumbled.

The large doors behind Maka opened wide and let in a giant wind. She turned to face it, but the next thing she knew, she was in the desert again, still in the hole. A pale hand was extended out to her as the wind continued to blow through the wheels of an unforgettable skateboard. "There's not much room if two people are on it, but it'll work," Kid said. He smiled at her.

She returned the look. His soul was normal again. Maka took his hand and hopped onto the floating skateboard.

It wasn't long until the four of them were all heading back to Death City.

"Impressive," Liz said as they walked. "Well, now we know who to call if Kid goes bonkers again."

Patty skipped beside them. "It was pretty boring to watch, but I liked the ending," She said. She ruffled with her meister's hair playfully, which he then immediately fixed.

"Sorry you got dragged into this, Maka, but thank you for helping," Kid said.

Maka put her hands behind her back. "Don't mention it. And happy late birthday! Maybe next year we can actually give you something you like."

"If it's all the same to you, I'd prefer to just pretend that I don't have a birthday. I wasn't actually born after all."

Maka nodded. "It's your choice."

"Kid, I was so worried about you! What happened?" Lord Death asked as he hugged his son. He was too relieved that Kid was back to notice the glare he was giving. "And what did you do with the fish?"

Kid got out of his father's clutch and handed back the fish. "I had Blair get rid of it," he answered. "By the way, I know everything. You can tell Spirit that he's not under arrest anymore."

Even through the mask, Kid knew his dad's face fell. "Oh," he said, "I was only trying to help you Kiddo."

"I know," Kid said.

"Sorry about your gift, but I'm really proud of your improvement! You're going to be a great Shinigami Kiddo."

A slight smile spread across Kid's face as he turned around. "Thank you, and I forgive you. Now if you excuse me, I have some vases to make."

A/N: I'd love your thoughts on this chapter and the story as a whole. Sorry it took so long, but the story's now finished. I hope you liked it.