The laughing moon. A familiar, if unsettling, sight. Tonight, however, it was more unsettling than usual, due largely to the presence of blood dripping from the moon's chuckling grin, as this was a sign that blood had been spilled.

Now, normally, when a person sees this blood, they might wonder whose blood was spilled and feel bad for the unfortunate soul. Seldom, would someone stop and think about the blood once it reached the ground. The moon, though, knew the scenario well. It knew where the blood would hit the ground and the sound it would make as it dripped.

Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.

The sound had a kind of rhythm to it, almost like your faucet when it springs a leak. Yet, tonight, as the moon observed, the blood was not alone in making this music. Tonight, it was joined by two sets of footprints, one following the other to the beat of the dripping, as if in a dance.

Yet, this was no dance. For scythemeister Maka Albarn and her partner, Soul Eater Evans, this was one soul closer to the long-awaited goal of elevating Soul to Deathscythe status.

"Deep breaths" Maka told herself as the target ahead of them ran, or rather, galloped, at a steady pace through the dark forest.

As the pain in Maka's chest grew, she began to notice that the target was moving farther away from, not closer to them. Wanting to end the pursuit, an idea entered her mind.

"Hey" Soul spoke out, "you thinkin' what I'm thinkin?"

Maka grinned and nodded. In one swift motion, Maka screeched to a halt and used the momentum from her running to fling Soul forward in a horizontal slash, severing the legs of their opponent's horse, sending the rider and the package he was carrying tumbling to the ground, reducing the demonic steed to a floating red soul, and lastly, embedding Soul in a nearby tree (much to the demon scythe's annoyance).

"Cool move, Maka" Soul quipped as Maka pulled him from the tree, flashing him a small grin. "Hey, heads up" He spoke as the figure behind them stirred.

Maka turned to face their opponent, determination burning brightly in her eyes (though not as brightly as the flames from their opponent's Jack-O-Lantern head).

"Headless Horseman, for your crimes of murder and aiding the witch, Ponera, in her madness inducing experiments, I'm here to claim your soul."

The Horseman let loose a booming laugh, his head's flames flashing as he chuckled. "Ha-ha-ha-ha! Oh, really? Well you can try, but I think my friends might object to that."

Suddenly out from the shadows came three new monstrous figures to join their headless friend.

The Horseman spoke, drawing his sword. "Master Thief Lupin, The Flying Dutchman, and Dreamkiller Frey D. Sadoko, all enemies of the Academy, and all are here to make this fight much more interesting. So, are you still bent on taking my soul?"

"Heh" Maka grinned "All of you in one place? Good. That means the Academy will conveniently be able to scratch all of you off its' list at the same time."

As she spoke, though, an unseen figure crouched in the shadows of the nearby trees. Silently, it reached into it's quiver and took out an arrow. Taking aim at Maka's head, it stretched the string of its' bow and let go, sending the arrow flying toward Maka Albarn's skull.

BLAM. BLAM. The arrow had been broken in midair by a gunshot. Maka, and the others turned to see the source of the shot.

Standing on a nearby rock, was the dark-haired figure of Death the Kid, his guns gleaming in the moonlight.

"Liz, Patty, excellent work on stopping that arrow." Kid complimented.

"Well, thanks Kid" Liz responded, "but I don't see why you had to fire both of us for just one arrow."

"For symmetry, of course. Really Liz, you should know better by now." The young shinigami corrected.

"Ha-ha! Yeah, you really should big sis!" Giggled Patty.

Liz sighed. "You know, what's really scary is that I completely agree with you."

"Hold on a minute" Soul interrupted "we're here and you're there so where's..."

"YAHOO! Black Star Big Wave!"

A flash of light and the bow wielding assailant was flung from the trees, landing at the feet of Maka and the archer's companions.

"Now, that was an amazing entrance, wasn't it Tsubaki?" The blue-haired assassin asked as he stepped out of the forest, flexing his muscles and grinning in a pose.

"Uh yeah, amazing Black Star." The dark arm replied while thinking to herself "Though it would've been more dignified if you hadn't had to ask me that."

"So" Black Star continued "now that, thanks to me and my awesomeness, your buddy The Hood" (referring to the green-cloaked, hooded archer who was currently joining the other targets) "had to come out of his hiding spot, whaddya say we get this show on the road and start kickin' some ass?"

"Ha-ha-ha" The Horseman laughed smugly, pointing his sword at Black Star, his flames burning brighter, casting eerie shadows across the surrounding area. "Alright, but remember, I've taken heads younger and cockier than yours!"

And like that, the battle began. It was a flash of shooting and slicing, dodging and kicking that would be very hard for an outside observer to keep track of. Black Star found himself avoiding both the Horseman's sword strokes and the flames that shot from his Jack-O-Lantern, while Kid took to settling an old score with the Flying Dutchman as he also avoided the more deadly accuracy from the Hood's arrows. Maka, meanwhile was busy spinning Soul to fend off the twin guns of Lupin and the claws of Frey D. Sadoko (a tactic that combined with the super-size chili-cheese hotdog Soul had for lunch to make the scythe quite sick, but that's a different story).

It didn't take long for the tide of battle to turn in the Academy students' favor. A single dodge of the Horseman's flame attack by Black Star led to the Flying Dutchman being reduced to a single red, floating soul, (much to the Horseman's embarrassment) leaving only the Hood for Kid to deal with.

The Hood was a tough opponent, jumping and kicking, while firing arrows like a machine gun. Kid actually sweat a little before he managed break his opponent's bow with Liz while placing Patty under the Hood's jaw before pulling the trigger.

Blam. With that sound, Kid's fight was over with.

Meanwhile, Maka had managed to slice through both of Lupin's guns, leading the cowardly thief to abandon Frey. D Sadoko.

By herself, Sadoko was quickly overwhelmed. In one stroke, Sadoko was bisected and joined the Flying Dutchman and the Hood in being reduced to a floating red soul.

"Maybe I can still make a clean getaway" Lupin thought to himself as he attempted to pick up the Horseman's dropped package, a green cocoon-like object, before he felt a sudden pressure on it, preventing him from doing so. Looking forward, he spotted a black shoe pressed on top of the cocoon. Glancing up, he saw that it belonged to Death the Kid, who was currently pointing Patty at his head.

"Oh no you don't", Kid spoke sternly, "you're not getting away this time."

Blam. Kid pulled the trigger, leaving only the Horseman to fight.

With another jolt from Black Star's wavelength, the Horseman found his back slumped up against a tree as he gazed forward to see the Academy's students all assembled against him.

Picking himself up, the Horseman chuckled a little to himself before sheathing his sword.

"Heh-heh, alright, I know when I'm beaten, so I won't drag this out any longer." He said, taking the Jack-O-Lantern from the top of his neck and placing it between his hands.

"What are you...?" Maka questioned.

"I guess I just have to accept my defeat. The fate of a fallen warrior. Be warned, though, there are much more frightening forces than me at work tonight."

Then, before anyone could respond, he pressed on both sides of his Jack-O-Lantern until it crumbled to pieces, causing his body to disintegrate, leaving only a brightly burning flame in its' place.

"Goodbye, students." His voice sounded before even his flame burned out and one final red soul was left in his place.

A long silence settled on the scene before Kid spoke up. "What do you suppose this thing is, anyways?" he said, gesturing to the cocoon on the ground.

"Who knows?" Black Star responded, somewhat indifferent.

"Whatever it is, we should collect it and these souls and get back to Sid and Mifune." Maka replied. "I'm sure Professor Stein will be able to figure it out."

"Let's change the subject to something more interesting." Black Star blurted. "Like me and how awesome I was in that fight, for example."

"Oh, really?" Soul responded, smirking. "You mean the fight where me and Maka collected one soul, Kid and the sisters collected three, and you collected zero?"

At that, Black Star looked away, and let out a frustrated snort. "Let's just get going." Black Star replied, changing the subject as he picked up the cocoon.

Amused, Maka let out a small giggle, unaware that two figures observed them from a nearby clifftop.

"Some fight, wasn't it, Grimoire?" The first figure, a pale, dark haired woman, in a white dress says in a somewhat childish giddy voice.

"Yes, it was." The second figure, a tan-skinned man wearing a gray plaid golf cap, jeans, and a white undershirt, replied, his eyes glowing red. "And the best part was that everything went as planned. Our minions put up enough of a fight that the Academy won't suspect what our real intentions were. Soon the cocoon will be in place and we'll be able to observe our test subject in action."

"Speaking of action", Ponera said, "I'd love to see some more of that blue-haired boy, he was as cute as a bug in a rug." She nuzzled the small, pink ant-like stuffed animal in her arms.

Amused, Grimoire replied "Oh, don't worry you'll be seeing more of them, so long as our plans continue. Heh-heh, it's funny really."

Ponera raised a brow in confusion.

Grimoire continued, "You see, they thought that Asura was the source of madness, but the real source, as they're about to learn, is the human heart."

At this, both of the pair smiled smugly, unaware that they too, were being observed. Their observer, the yellow, chuckling one with blood dripping from its' mouth simply thought to itself "Oh, the stories I could tell."

And that's chapter one! I hope you liked it. Also, to answer any questions you might have, those characters at the end were villains from Monotone Princess (In case ya didn't know) and the Hood was basically a kishin Robin Hood. Also, to fans of my other work, Crona will make a prominent appearance in this story, but he won't be the main focus as I want to grow as a writer by writing about other characters, though he's still my fav. Also, PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW. I cannot say how much it annoys me when people like or dislike my work, but stay silent. I need reviews so I can improve, so please be courteous. Anyways, I hope to have the next chapter up in about a week. Til then, ciao!