Graced by the conscious realm, Soul jolted upright in the armchair he'd been previously confined to. His relief was short-lived when he caught a glimpse of the sight in front of him.

Maka was in awfully bad shape. Her legs were bandaged up to her thighs and the blood was soaking through them quickly. It was apparent that whomever had 'treated' her had done a very half-assed job. And pressingly, through the dim light, he could see the figure of Arachnae pressed against her, holding her and running gracefully careful fingers through her hair. But the ease in her demeanor did not do much to put Soul's fury at rest, as he immediately protested, "Let her go! Get away from her, right now!"

It appeared that they were not alone. Giriko, a person lacking in general areas of free-will or the capacity to form a single complex thought in his head, bashed Soul in the back of his head. A bash which he imagined, when applied with the right amount of force, might have just knocked him unconscious again. He winced and haphazardly shut one eye but stubbornly clung to the light of reality. "I said let her go." he repeated in his firmest voice. "Or we're gonna have some serious issues."

The woman interrupted Giriko before he had the chance to demand the captive's silence (again), "Dear Maka... She never did belong to you.."

He released an unexpectedly primal growl, "Don't mess with me."

"It's not like that at all, you see.." she plucked a strand of hair from Maka's head as she wrapped it around her dainty index finger, but Maka didn't stir. "You're powerless.. If you think trapping yourself inside of a boy's body is enough to resurrect your grasp on that then you're horridly mistaken.."

"You're working for Asura." he accused, "Don't lie to me. This is what it's been about this whole time, and you've dragged innocent people into this, haven't you?"

"My, my.." The woman looked up long enough to catch his eye, "As indecisive as ever, are we, Eibon?"

At that moment, something became undeniably clear.

Through one eye, Soul was merely spectating a conversation between himself and a woman he knew next to nothing about. Through the other, he'd been possessed by the spirit he'd harbored in his soul for a year now. "Hold on." Soul interrupted Eibon; his voice lost its growl. "You're telling me that all this time-" he was struggling to keep the dominant hold on his voice, "I've been- Only a fraction of myself-?!"

Eibon didn't break long enough to deny or confirm that. As soon as he regained a hold on the boy's body, he retorted with a sigh, "It seems I'm being forced out of this soul, but I'll take hold of another one so long as I'm able. So long as that collar persists, I shall exist in this world. And it seems I'm fated to forever go toe-to-toe with a villain like you, Arachnae."

"I can't deny that, Eibon." she leaned on Maka, "But so long as good persists in this world.. So shall evil. Per every bright light, there's a shadow waiting to snuff it out and vice versa.. Perhaps there's a reason you've been cursed to chase your own tail around and around for a century. Right, O'Mighty Tool of Eibon?"

The tool couldn't deny it. "Even so." An echo was straining his volume, "You and I both know that you're incapable of wielding a grigori soul. Should you even come to obtain it somehow, your body and soul will burn like the witch you are."

"Would you like those to be your last words?"

A solemn moment of silence passed. He let out a bemused hum, "If I'm to say one last thing before my reign is inevitably destroyed, I'd say this: You hone madness as if it were a sword to strike against the strongest shields of even the soundest minds of the soundest bodies. But it seems that no matter how old you've grown," he paused, "you'll never understand the complexity of a perfectly executed resonance; the beauty of two souls interconnecting in harmony: Mind, body, madness and all."

The echo faded out with his final warning and suddenly Soul fell forward, clutching the ground for support as he landed on all fours. Giriko, whom had been watching the scene with slight shock, aimed to kick the boy. Arachnae stopped him with a raised hand, "Go fetch a phone. I'd like to speak with Asura."

He begrudgingly complied, but not without kicking Soul at least once in the side of his stomach. Upon his departure, Soul got to his knees. "So what you're saying is.."

She stopped him, "I suppose you've put the pieces together. Though I don't know how much Eibon told you while he was inside of your soul... Yes, you were virtually a non-essential piece to a much larger plan."

The words struck him. The thought of a whole tormented year gone to waste was prodding at the lingering pain in his heart, but he shoved it aside forcefully, if only for a moment longer. "But you dragged Maka into this!"

"That's not true at all." The woman rested Maka's head on her lap as she laid the unresponsive body on its side, "Maka was the end-result from the very beginning."

He narrowed his eyes, "What?"

"Allow me to explain." The politeness in her tone didn't match her eyes, "Maka. Her mother. Her good-for-nothing father who couldn't hold down a woman, her dead-end job and her employment with my sister... It all led up to you." She eyed him with the fascination of a hunter. "...Because that's how fate decreed it? That's laughable. How childishly naive."

"Get on with it!"

"Fate had nothing to do with Maka Albarn. She was just the playing field in which a cosmic game of chess was being held, and let's just say, the game had a way of turning out in my favor."

"...So...You're saying that you've had a hand in her life from the very beginning, is that it?"

"That's right." Her expression was unchanging. Soul couldn't fathom how a woman could speak so easily about conducting someone's life as easily as a measly game of chess.

"Is this some kind of joke!" he accused with a harsh glare, "How dare you... You don't know what kind of hell she's gone through to get where she is today. Just for you to say that everything played out the way you intended it to be?!"

"Fate is a funny thing, isn't it?"

His voice caught in his throat.

"From the very beginning, it's predetermined. It's all you've ever worked towards your entire life, tied up into one end-result controlled by someone else. Whether it be a cosmic meeting between the gods or a single person pulling the strings. Life as we know it is exactly as someone intended it to be."

"You're wrong."

"Am I?"

"Of course you are!" he was prepared to attack somehow. Anything to release the rage that was burning inside of him, "How can you possibly say that? Do you think you could really have that much control over someone else's life? Are you so arrogant that you'd dare to call yourself someone else's fate?!"

"Something tells me that you don't agree with me, Mr. Evans."

He didn't even bother to cringe at the mention of that name. Not anymore. "How could I agree with someone that's so... blind?"

Her expression remained unreadable. Whether or not she was listening was difficult to determine.

"To think that someone like you exists. It makes me sick.." The growl had returned to his voice, but he was undoubtedly free of the collar. Something about the fire in his stomach amused the witch-woman and she couldn't suppress a bit of smug laughter.

"I detect... undying jealousy. Are you really so angry that fate isn't the being that brought you two together; That without my hand in everything, the girl would have never so much as known your name?"

"Shut up! You don't know anything about her life, do you?! And you don't know anything about fate! I'll kill you!"

"You can try, but you'll find that without that beast in your belly, you're quite powerless."

He was silent. She was correct. Without the beast, he really wasn't much of a fight. Of course a grown woman could overpower a boy of his stature, but that didn't mean he was willing to give up without a fight.

To give up on Maka so easily when she'd sacrificed just about everything for his sake.. was unforgivable.

Kid was frantic. "This can't be right." His eyes were wide and glossed painfully over a particularly worn page of a book that might have been older than the very foundation of the academy. "There must be some sort of mistake."

Liz was biting her thumb, "It's plain as day, Kid.."

"To think that something so atrocious could have been concocted on these very grounds. It's an abomination. Unsightly. A plague...!"

Even Patty seemed to have quieted down in response to the sudden plunge of the atmosphere. They'd been peering through records, books, dictionaries, anything and everything on the fifth level of the library that might have been even remotely relevant to the situation but nothing helped. That is, until Kid met a moment of frustration that'd caused him to offhandedly chuck a book across the room. It wouldn't be the first, but it had been the only book to contain something extra inside of its pages: A blank sheet of paper scrawled so carefully in archaic ink that there was no doubt about it.

This book had belonged to the era of Eibon. And Eibon himself had left a personally written letter inside of it, addressed to his very own father.

Lord Death,

It pains me to regretfully inform you that Asura has had his way. The grigori soul has rightfully been bestowed upon a child. The child's identity has been compromised by the Kishin; I fear the girl's future is in great danger. However, nothing can be done to mend the damage already bestowed upon Maka Albarn's life. Therefore I humbly resign from my position at the academy as I'll be pursuing an unorthodox method of retrieval. I've issued this letter long after my decision and thus, by the time you'll receive it, I'll have already begun my journey. My soul will hence forth be fragmented into the magic tools of my design, scattered all over the world. My departure is an essential piece to a much larger plan: In order to ensure that the grigori soul stays out of the wrong hands. So it may never be utilized for unconventional purposes and may only serve as that which heaven above intended.

May the academy heed my oath and continue instilling the important of resonance among its students.

Eibon.

The twins had been confused at first, having no idea what any of this had to do with the current situation, aside from the direct mention of Maka Albarn's name. But by the time a 'grigori' soul had been mentioned, they'd already been long gone, leaving Kid to explain to the best of his ability, the purpose of a grigori soul and its unfortunate refuge on earth.

"...I'm sure you know that divine beings in this world are bestowed almost as frequently as unholy mongrels." Namely, kishins. They nodded. "Well... A grigori soul is said to be a soul blessed with the power of the angels. One that is only ever passed down every thousand years. And during each intermission it is driven to either lay waste to the world or wreak salvation upon it."

"...Then.. Is a grigori soul a bad thing?" Liz asked.

"Heavens no." Kid shook his head, "...Or at least that's what I'd like to say, but frankly, it depends entirely on who its bestowed upon. It appears that this letter was written shortly after Maka's birth but frankly I recall Eibon's disappearance being marked long before that... Unless he never truly left the academy. In which case, I'll have to take up the matter of undisclosed residency with my father." he shut the book, "But this makes one thing certain: Maka is in great danger and Soul is harboring a fraction of a sentient being. One that was crazy enough to stow himself away in magic tools for the sake of staving off madness, from this world... After being driven a mad fool by the death of his wife."

Nothing appeared to make sense to the twins, but they were on Kid's side, no matter the side he decided to take in the end. They understood one thing perfectly: Kid would confront his father and he'd be faced with answers or the premonition that, perhaps, this school's hands isn't all that clean in the case of Maka Albarn's fate, which was decided from the very beginning.

A fate which was determined from the very beginning. Witches with a thirst for power. Rows and rows of pawns and a chest board set, game, and match. Eibon, responsible for unethical divination within mortals. These are the components that made the grigori soul: Maka Albarn.

Soul's argument was far from over. But it'd resorted to violence quickly. Though he tried to tackle her and aim for her neck, she'd managed a solid kick to his stomach and purposefully incapacitated him for a moment with a blow to the ribs. Nothing felt broken quite yet, but that may be the fault of adrenaline. "Come now, don't be so brash." her voice was eerily calm, "Giriko isn't here. It's rude to play with a lady without her dog's permission."

That analogy didn't register with him. Either way, he was fed up with words. She was pretty good at the mind game but he needed to remind her that he wasn't one that was going to be swayed by her distorted logic. And yet, she managed to hold her own against him with minimal effort and a fan in one hand, hiding her face as she cooled herself from the intensity of the room's temperature.

"Die!" he declared, aiming to scratch her throat. Perhaps he was purposely trying to will some sort of primal instinct out of himself, but he found that she'd been right about one too many things; one being the fact that all the natural fight lurking inside of him had lost its way. And yet, he'd been certain that all of those times he'd been protecting Maka had been himself and only him. That he'd done so out of the warmth in his heart in regards to her presence in his life.

He refused to accept that it was all a lie. That in the end, she was just a trophy for their amusement.

She blocked the scratch with the fan which had suddenly closed. Then she struck him with it like an owner would to a disobedient dog. "Little boys that don't respect their elders will never grow to learn. Did you intend on remaining this pitiful forever?"

"Be quiet!" He understood that no matter how many times he told her off, he simply wasn't strong enough to take her. But he also understood that there was still a fire in his heart, with or without Eibon. And he was going to do whatever was in his power and so on to ignite it. "You don't know what you're talking about." he threw a punch at her, which she evaded. "Choosing to stay by someone's side and fight for them. To fight along side them. To fight with them. That's beyond your comprehension, isn't it?! It's not fate. Fate has nothing to do with it!" he was throwing blind punches in her direction the whole time, and yet she never wavered.

"Fate didn't tell me to stick with Maka. Who cares if you pulled some strings and folded the pages? I'd follow Maka to the end of time if she told me to, because what I feel for her is stronger than any 'fate' you've known in your entire miserable life!"

Suddenly, a spark of ignition hit him in the chest. He felt confidently. As though Maka's spirit were calling out to him; And it was enough to drive him towards a single solid punch to the woman's face, which he achieved without fail. Arachnae stumbled and hit the floor. She clutched her bruised visage.

This time, she wore a frown. "...What a spiteful little brat you are." she decided, "I'll have to deal with you sooner than I thought, then... Though I thought you would have tread carefully. Knowing you're a non-essential piece to Maka Albarn's puzzle." The witch looked up at him with the fury she'd been holding back. Her whole-hearted and passionate resentment towards fate. "You should have guessed. That also means you're expendable. And nobody on earth would miss you if I killed you."

Soul didn't care. His confidence never wavered, even in the presence of a woman whose expression showed plainly how serious she was about killing him. "Then put your money where your mouth is and fight me. All this time you haven't been taking me seriously."

"I'll be sure to acknowledge you once you're dead." Arachnae came at him with fierce determination, and Soul countered with the same force. They met each other in the middle with a solid punch to both of their faces, but the given impact wasn't enough to send either of them flying back. Rather, it merely left them standing there with a fist on the other's face and a bruise forming under each eye. They pulled apart savagely, as if their skin was hot to the touch.