I do not own Soul Eater nor do I intend to garner revenues from use of its characters

Ash and Thunder

By Reizod

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Chapter 3: Fire and Lightning

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The sun had long fallen to the darkness of night when Jackie arrived at the graveyard on the outskirts of Death City's suburban district. She was breathing heavily from following the seemingly tireless maggots all over town, routinely running over, though and under many gates, fences, and walls in the process.

Now, standing at the main entrance to the graveyard, watching the feculent finger scuttle its way into the depths of this home for the dead, Jackie allowed herself a moment's repose. Even if she lost the maggots she was following, she knew he was here. He always had a thing for graveyards

"Marco" she muttered as she propped herself up on the iron fence that enclosed the graveyard. "Come back to finish what you started?"

A dark gravelly whisper responded to her question. "Just taking what is due to me."

The voice seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. Jackie might've been intimidated if she wasn't already familiar with the trick. "Come on Marco. I know you're hiding here somewhere." She left the fence centering herself in the middle of the main path through the graveyard. "Stop talking with the grubs."

There was a moment's silence before a different, more human voice replied "You never knew how to have fun."

A moment later a casually dressed boy, who didn't look much older than Jackie peeked out from behind one of the larger gravestones. A layer of gauze was wrapped across his ears and nose, confirming to Jackie that he had indeed lost those parts of his body.

"Looks like you're falling apart there Marc." Jackie remarked with a slight smirk. "Life been hard on you?

"Only because you took Kim away from me."

"If I didn't she would've removed herself anyway." Jackie said darkly "You were eating her alive."

"Well she never said I couldn't."

"That's not the point."

"Then what is the point, oh guardian of the tanuki?"

"I'm not going to let you do it again."

Marco smirked as he walked out into the open, revealing the shriveled and discolored arm that was barely connected to the rest of Marco's body which, though in varying degrees of health and decay, was still far healthier than the arm. He stared down the raven haired girl who stood before him, grasping the belt loops of his pants as he began to shift back and forth, like an impatient child with a secret to tell. "Honestly, I didn't think you'd take it so hard. I mean it was just an arm. She eventually learned how to grow it back."

"Before or after the pain from you ripping it off of her?"

"You never could let a thing go."

"And you never understood the meaning of consequence."

Marco chuckled "I can't help it if some soul scientist reject messed up on making me immortal." He began to meander from grave to grave, drawing his hand across their varied tombstones. "My body's constantly dying. I need constant healing to keep myself alive."

"You could've asked her for that." Jackie deadpanned "She might have actually agreed to it."

"Or she could've said no." Marco replied "I was making sure the odds were in my favor. Besides," Marco continued as he took a seat on a tombstone. "I actually kind of enjoyed her screams. They reminded me of a dying canary."

"We have nothing more to talk about." Jackie snarled as she formed her lantern on the end of her right arm, bracing it like a cannon. "You won't get any mercy from me this time."

Hopping off the tombstone and centering himself as maggots began to spill out from his body on to his arms and legs, Marco's reply was simple. "Heh."

If the boy had any more to say after that, it could not be heard for the immense sound of the rushing flames that burst forth from Jackie's lantern arm. Marco had barely enough time to duck behind a tombstone as the flames berated the semi circular tablet with intense heat.

Jackie then intensified the flames from her lantern, bathing the tombstone and the area immediately surrounding it in fire. She didn't notice the veritable army of grubs encroaching behind her like a sentient white carpet. However, their presence became quite apparent to her when they attempted to grasp at her left leg.

With a horrified "Ick!" Jackie halted her burning tirade, forming the lantern in her left leg and flaring out with it, incinerating the hapless maggots that had attempted to incapacitate her. Turning back to face her adversary, Jackie found that a rotting forearm and fist were flying straight at her head. She barely managed to dodge the attack, ducking under the disembodied limb as it flew over her.

She only barely noticed the trail of grubs lagging behind it like a fleshy rope before they ensnared her stomach. Jackie could feel them biting and tugging at her skin as she manifested her lantern in her abdomen, incinerating the bugs as easily as before.

As she did this, another appendage rushed towards her, scuttling across the ground on the backs of maggots. It grasped her leg, much like the maggot carpet before it. However, as she manifested her lantern in her leg to burn the arm off, it did not let go. Far from it, it grasped even tighter, apparently attempting to crush her tibia through sheer force. Jackie grimaced, resisting the urge to reach down and attempt to wrench the thing off her leg. She knew that this, though debilitating, was just a distraction. Sure enough, another arm came flying through the air, this time aimed at her neck. Leaning to the side of the attack, Jackie manifested her lantern in her right arm once more, retaliating with an explosive backhand that sent the disembodied arm spiraling away from her.

Only moments after she did this, however, she felt something blunt striking the small of her back with a rather large amount of force, causing her to stumble forward with a pain filled grunt. Her gaze fell to the ground just long enough to see that a maggot chain had formed out of the forearms that was grasping her leg, before said leg was pulled out from under her, slamming Jackie's face into the ground. She growled in frustrated pain as she attempted to pick herself up off the ground.

Unfortunately, she was afforded no repose as something rather heavy and large landed on her back, crushing her back down to the ground. Though she couldn't quite see the thing that was holding her down, Jackie could tell what it was by its grating texture and enormous weight.

"Tombstone." Jackie hissed, her lungs and diaphragm constricted by the immense weight. She cursed as she felt one of her ribs crack under the duress

A pair of sneakers walked into view, followed by Marco's head as the maggot mage kneeled down to Jackie's level, revealing that both of his arms were currently cut off at the elbow, a maggot chain reeling itself into both stalks. "Sorry Jack, but I win today."

Jackie's response was to reform her lantern on her arm and fire at the arrogant brat, as she growled "It's Jackie."

"Yow!" Marco cried as his face and feet launched themselves upward to avoid the attack. Soon after he left Jackie's line of sight, Jackie felt more of her ribs cracking and popping as even more weight fell upon her back, making it nearly impossible to breathe. Soon afterward, Marco's voice sounded off from the approximate position of the newly added weight. "You never did know when to quit."

"Not—." Jackie struggled to speak, the combination of the ground against her mouth and the worsening state of her lungs making the task a very hard one. "Not where Kim is involved."

"Heh" Marco said "That'll at least make this entertaining." After he said this Marco began to chant, causing a veritable wave of grubs and filth to move into Jackie's line of sight, encroaching upon her at a steady rate.

"Get… away from… me" She hissed, barely bringing her lantern to bear on the maggot army and firing away at them with all her might. With every shot she fired, more of the nasty things would appear, and the pain in her chest was steadily growing, as the tombstone felt heavier and heavier against her back. She could hear Marco's sadistic laughter as he said "Will it be by maggot or by tombstone? I can't wait to find out."

The mage's laugh continued for a few seconds before it halted abruptly. This brief silence was followed by Marco's pain filled cry, as she saw his body fall into the bed of grubs and filth. She felt the weight of the tombstone slide off her back as a familiar voice asked "Can you stand, Jacqeuline?"

She smiled weakly as she allowed herself some time to catch her breath. "It's Jackie, you ass." She managed, propping herself up on her arms. She turned to face a stoic yet battle ready Harvar, his staff blade already formed on his arm. "I'll be up in a second."

"Don't rush it." Harvar said as he stepped forward towards the now prone Marco. "You're not in a condition to fight." Without another glance at Jackie, Harvar started on his way to Marco a rather dark expression on his visage. "Just let me do it."

Jackie shook her head as she continued to try and force herself to stand. "Be careful, Harvar."

---

Harvar frowned as he cautiously approached the maggot mage's prone body, weapon arm upraised. He wasn't quite sure of the situation, however, one thing was clear to him: This decaying boy was more than likely the thing that had been following Ox around town. And from Jackie's statement of "Not where Kim is involved." when Harvar had just arrived on the scene, confirmed Harvar's suspicions regarding her involvement. That still left the question of where Ox fit into all this, but that was a question for another less hectic time. Priority one went to protecting a fellow weapon of Shibusen.

This in mind, Harvar placed himself about five feet away from Jackie, with another ten feet separating him and the filthy cushion that Marco was lounging in. This position allowed him a fair amount of ability to protect her until she caught her breath. As soon as she did he would ask her to leave and cover her six on the way out. He wasn't sure how agreeable she'd be to such a plan, but he'd deal with that when he got there. For now he had to focus on buying her time.

"Marco right?" Harvar asked "You're the one who's been sneaking around Shibusen?"

Marco, picking himself up with his maggots, glared at Harvar. "You. I know you." Marco said "You've been following me."

"Answer the question."

"I bet you don't even know why I'm here."

"The fact that you're a mage and in Shibusen without anyone's permission is reason enough to suspect your intentions."

"Even if I said it was to finish Kim? She's a witch you know."

Harvar could hear Jackie piping up behind him, and gave her a mollifying gesture, keeping his eyes on the adversary before him. "I know that full well." Harvar said simply. "Suffice to say, it doesn't justify your presence here."

"I see." Marco replied "So she already has you in her thrall."

"That would be my meister's problem" Harvar said with ever so slight an upturn in the edge of his lips. "But that spell is less magical and more chemical in nature."

"So you would protect a witch?" Marco asked with a smirk "And her minion?"

Harvar shook his head. "I would protect a meister and her weapon, both outstanding students of Shibusen."

At this Marco smiled sadistically "Then let's see how well you do."

Immediately following his statement, Marco began an incantation, causing a section of the grubs that congregated at his feet to advance forward, splitting around Harvar and converging on Jackie.

Realizing what was happening, Harvar made a mad dash for Jackie, landing at her side in a kneeling position and immediately scooping her up into a fireman's carry.

"Ribs!" Jackie grunted as her sternum and rib cage were hoisted onto Harvar's shoulder.

"Just hold tight." Harvar said as he left the main path to blaze a trail through the graves on his right side. "We've got to move quick."

Harvar's path was wild and winding, hurdling both graves and streams of maggots as he padded his way through the graveyard. Even so after a few jumps, twists and turns, Harvar found himself surrounded by encroaching maggots his back to feeble gnarled tree that cast its winding shadow upon the scene.

A rather unsettling whisper came forth from the encroaching wave of sentient filth, like the voices of the damned. "You have nowhere to hide."

"Neither do you" Harvar said as he manifested his blade on his right arm and spun into a horizontal cut at the tree. The slice was awkward, considering that he had Jackie draped across his shoulders, but it did what he needed it to do: chop the tree down.

Harvar then stepped to the side of the toppling plant, and cried "Burn it Jacqueline!"

"It's Jackie, god damn it!" Jackie replied, forming her lantern on her arm and firing it into the tree as it fell. She kept a steady stream of flames going as Harvar turned about like a turret, allowing them to wash the area in flames, utterly destroying any grubs that dared enter their range of attack.

However, it seemed that they traded one predicament for another as they were both completely surrounded by steadily encroaching flames.

"Perhaps I didn't think that through." Harvar murmured as he scanned the area with his an impassive expression.

"You think?" Jackie said dully as she watched the flames flicker and billow, the smoke curling into the night sky like a ghostly behemoth, as the low crackling roar of the flames filled the air. "Pretty though." She moved her arm to bring her head closer to Harvar's as she whispered "You can put me down now."

"Right." Harvar said as he gently let Jackie off his shoulders and onto her feet.

Jackie winced as she slid off, holding her ribs as soon as she got her footing. "You could've used the bridal carry you know. Would've been easier on my ribs."

"The imbalance would've slowed me down." Harvar replied

"Sure it would've." Jackie said, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, it looks like we're stuck."

"Looks that way." Harvar concurred "At least there's no easy way out of this."

"No easy way?" Jackie asked hopefully. "But you've got an idea?"

"Maybe." Harvar replied holding his chin in thought. "I can only hope that the cross training worked."

Jackie gave him a befuddled look, that morphed into an intrigued expression, which then further metamorphosed into an inspired grin.

"Well." She said with a nod. "It couldn't hurt to try.

---

Marco stood alone, no more than thirty meters away from the immense flames that had risen from his maggot's chase. Marco chuckled as he watched the flames continue to spread across the graveyard. "Aww. I wanted to kill her myself. Oh well." He shrugged as he turned away from the ever growing wildfire. " I'll have to settle for Kim's death rattle instead."

He turned to walk away from the flames, but then heard the distinct sound of an explosion. No not an explosion. More like…

"A rocket?" Marco said incredulously as whirled about just in time to see thrown through the wall of flames, rolling out of the landing and putting out the fires that had alighted upon his clothing.

Marco laughed as Harvar picked himself up off the ground. "So it looks like you gave up on her anyway."

Harvar said nothing as he pulled something that looked like a chain taunt in with his left hand, his right hand holding the other end that had a lantern affixed to it.

Marco's expression became distinctly less confident when he realized what exactly it was that he was looking at. "Oh no."

It was Harvar's turn to smile in a sadistic manner as he responded "Oh yes."

With that he aimed the lantern behind him, an explosion of flames firing out the back and launching him forward towards Marco, who raised a shield of grubs to block Harvar's charge. Harvar however, had expected this reaction, already aiming the lantern ahead of him and firing a continuous stream, burning up the wall of filth.

As the wall fell away, Harvar found that the only thing left of Marco behind it was a disembodied arm, on a small mat of filth and maggots. Knowing what this meant, Harvar turned about just in time to see another severed arm fly towards him on a tether. Harvar just managed to catch the arm in the chains of the lantern as he ducked out of the way of it.

"Take care of it Jackie." Harvar said as he let go of the lantern.

"Right" came Jackie's voice as she formed out of the lantern, keeping her chain wrapped around the arm. She then burned its tether to ashes and slammed the arm hard into the ground, then showering it in flames for good measure.

Meanwhile, Harvar found that the other arm had latched onto his leg and was producing an army of maggots presumably to engulf him. He wasn't quite quick enough to stop them from engulfing his legs, however, he did manage to form his lightning blade on his hand and stab the severed arm and followup with a debilitating jolt of electricity, which paralyzed the attacking limb and the many bugs that were connected to it.

However, the arm recovered quite quickly from the stun, not releasing Harvar's leg as a trail of maggots connected to it and pulled Harvar's legs out from under him. He hit the ground hard, as Jackie hurried to his side, only to get caught in the back of the neck by a concentrated ball of grubs and filth. She fell beside Harvar, flailing about to get the nasty things off.

That was when Marco himself appeared practically brimming with grubs, maggots and filth. "Well that was entertaining." He said as he caused formed a massive fist out of the grubs that were crawling all over his body. "But I'm afraid it was too little too late."

It was at that moment that Jackie returned to her weapon form, as Harvar, rolled over to her, just in time to aim a blast upward at the falling fist, punching through it with a brilliant stream of flame. Then, before Marco could even balk in surprise, Harvar sprung off the ground into an explosive overhead slam crushing Marco into the ground. The maggot mage could only start a cry in pain as Harvar followed up with a pinpoint stab to the heart followed by a jolt of electricity to paralyze and halt his enemy's cardiovascular system.

Harvar held his position as Jackie returned to human form and took the opportunity to pull the arm of Harvar's leg.

"You'd never guess this was the healing arm, the way he was throwing it around." Jackie said as she went about the business of incinerating it. "Not that he has any use for it now."

Harvar twisted his blade hand before pulling it out. "Better to be safe than sorry."

---

The next morning Harvar was standing on one of the many balconies of Shibusen, waiting for the day to begin. The school grounds were sparse, although he could see Ox down there, waiting for Kim to appear. Sid had and Nygus had appeared soon after Harvar and Jackie had finished their fight the night before and went about the business of putting out the fire. The happening, as per Harvar's request, was to be kept under wraps. He preferred not to be known as the student who could both be a weapon and wield one at the same time.

So here he stood, like any other day, the sun grinning in the east, and the students filing about like ants below. Well, one thing was different.

"I thought you were done with surveillance, Harvar." Came Jackie's voice from behind him.

Harvar shook his head. "With an incident like that, it makes more sense to tighten security than to loosen it."

Jackie smiled and shook her head. "That's just like you." She moved to stand beside him, casting her own gaze upon the world below. "So you still think Kim's a threat?"

Harvar sighed "Everything has its threatening points. Including myself. However," He then took off his visor for a moment and gave Jackie a lopsided smile. "That doesn't stop them from being my friends."

Jackie was speechless for a moment, unsure of what had just happened. Harvar on the other hand casually replaced his visor and impassive expression upon his visage and turned to head back into Shibusen.

"Don't be late for class Jacqueline."

"Its Jackie" Jackie murmured with a smile as she took one last look at sunrise. "You ass."

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End Chapter 3