Chapter One: Captured?

Hey guys, and welcome to my fanfiction! I started this a few weeks ago, and recently completed it. The whole story started out as a dream, that grew into an idea, that grew into a drabble, that grew into 12k words and counting of TsuStar. I thought I ought post it!

Lemme know what you think! I promise that BlackStar comes in next chapter. I know that Mifune is a little OOC, but I worked very hard, rewriting entire sections, to keep Tsubaki and BlackStar in character.

Please enjoy!

It was a surprise attack on Baba Yaga's castle. Death had ordered it the night before all the troops launched their attack.

Tsubaki had no idea what had gone wrong. During battle, she and BlackStar had somehow been captured. She wasn't quite sure what had happened. Suddenly, BlackStar wasn't holding her anymore, and as she transformed into a human, she was quickly bound by one of Arachnophobia's agents. She couldn't see BlackStar, but she could hear him screaming at his captors.

"BlackStar! What happ-" Her call was cut off as cloth was shoved into her mouth.

"Tsubaki! I don't know, something struck me and I dropped you! I'm so sor-"

He had been gagged, too.

There was a strike of agony, and everything went black.

The next thing Tsubaki knew, she was on the floor of a cell. She was absolutely freezing, and all of her muscles ached.

"Uhhh…" she moaned and propped herself up on her elbow. "Wha….BlackStar? Where are you?"

She stumbled to her feet, and over to the cell door. There was only a tiny space to look out of. Tsubaki stood on tiptoe, and peeked out. All she could see was an empty hallway. No sign of BlackStar.

Where is he? Tsubaki thought, fear slowly creeping into her mind. What did they do to him? Is he all right? There's no way he's anywhere near me; if he's awake. He'd be screaming and trying to get out.

Footsteps echoed across the empty hallway. Tsubaki immediately laid back down, curling up so she would appear to be unconscious.

The door creaked open, and a cool voice echoed off of the cell walls.

"I know you're awake. I heard you call out to your partner."

Tsubaki sat up. She knew who this was.

"Mifune?"

The samurai didn't respond, but only walked closer to Tsubaki, who stood up and glared at him.

"Where's BlackStar? What have you done to him? And where are we? What do you want with us?"

"He's perfectly fine. He's just in a different cell block. He's still unconscious, but he should awake any minute. " Mifune said comfortingly, placing a hand on Tsubaki's shoulder. "Listen, I'm going to try and get the two of you out of here. I don't have much say, but I may be able to convince the Lady Arachne to allow you to return to Death City. You just have to stay calm. Don't make any of the guards angry, they're allowed to hurt you if they want. I'll do my best to keep you safe while you're here, as long as you trust me."

Tsubaki smiled at Mifune. He truly was a kind man. He cared about children, and she knew that he didn't want any harm to come to her.

"Thank you," She said. "Thank you so much. Where are we?"

"You're in the castle's prison." Mifune answered.

"Why are we being held captive? Why don't they just kill us?" Tsubaki asked, anger creeping into her voice.

"Lady Arachne wants you, Tsubaki. Your powers are incredible, and your potential is even greater. You are the only fighting member of the Nakatsukasa clan left. Lady Arachne wants you to aid her in defeating the academy."

"I would never, ever, agree to work-"

"I know. When Lady Arachne realized this, she suggested that we…we take you and your partner, and threaten his safety if you didn't cooperate."

"What?! How…how twisted is that!? They're going to hurt BlackStar! N-what? They can't. I-I can't work with Arachnophobia! I won't fight against the academy. Lady Arachne is a fool if she thinks that some threat would make me-"

"I know, but the idea was planted in her mind. I'm going to try and convince her that you'd never work with her, no matter what. I think if I play this right, both of you will make it out alive."

Tsubaki stared at her feet, trying to ignore the fear that was flooding into her. Her only hope was her enemy? If Mifune couldn't convince Arachne that Tsubaki was useless, she'd be forced to attack the academy. Or if Mifune did convince her …what if they killed Tsubaki? She could die, never see Maka, Soul, Kidd, or anyone from the academy ever again.

Hot tears rose into her eyes and blurred her vision. "I…what if she thinks I'm useless and decides to…" Her voice broke, and she shook her head angrily, refusing to lose her head. "To kill me."

There was a terrifying moment of silence, in which Tsubaki struggled to control her urge to cry and Mifune seemed to be searching for an answer.

Then he gripped Tsubaki's shoulders. "I will not let them kill you. I do not value Arachne's promise of safety for Angela more than I value the lives of two children. Do you understand me?"

Tsubaki nodded. "Th-thank you."

"I need to go and see BlackStar now. Is there anything you want me to tell him?"

"Just that I'm okay, and to keep a cool head."

Mifune nodded, and turned to leave. "Oh, one more thing!" Tsubaki called. "Tell him that this isn't his fault. That blaming himself for us getting captured is silly; I don't blame him and and neither should he."

Mifune turned around, and smiled at Tsubaki. "You are a good partner. He's very lucky to have you. Stay safe, alright? I'll come and visit when I can."

Tsubaki nodded as he shut the door. She heard the lock click shut, and a bar scrape the metal door. She sighed, and leaned against the back wall of the cell. She had no idea what would happen to her. Tsubaki trusted Mifune, he was a very honorable man. She wasn't sure if he could get them out of this, though.

Tsubaki wasn't sure how long she sat there, undisturbed, but eventually she heard footsteps in the hallway again. Mifune? Maybe he had brought her something to eat, she was starving. Tsubaki heard someone fiddle with the lock, and she stood up, curious to see who her visitor was.

Her heart sunk as she saw an ugly mouth curl into a sneer.

It wasn't Mifune. It was Giriko, the dark weapon Maka, Soul, and Crona had fought and nearly been killed by. Tsubaki immediately recognized him from Maka's description.

"What do you want with me?" She spat, trying to ignore the fear rising inside of her. Her heart was beating so fast, it felt like she was going to throw it up.

"I wouldn't be so rude, little girl." Giriko answered, "You do know we're allowed to do what we want with you? As long as there's still a few essential pieces remaining." It seemed that he was enjoying seeing an academy student so helpless.

"You need me," Tsubaki answered. "You want to convince me to fight with Arachne, right? I can't do that in pieces. If I'm valuable enough to capture, than I'm valuable enough to be protected from nutjobs like you. Lady Arachne won't be pleased if she finds out you beat me up before I could be used."

Giriko snarled angrily, and there was flash of light as blades began to whirr up and down his left arm. "Shut your disgusting, little mouth, you filthy brat. What I'm allowed to do is none of your concern. The only thing you should be worried about is these blades that are going to cut you into pieces!"

"If you wanted to kill me," Tsubaki shouted back, "You would have come in and done it while I was unconscious!"

There was a moment of silence in which Tsubaki took a shaky step backwards, realizing how close Giriko had gotten to her.

"Oh, you're mistaken, little sword." Giriko responded, his voice deadly calm. "I don't want to kill you."

He raised his arm, and an insane grin lit up his face. "I want to hear you scream in pain! I want to feel your blood wetting my blades, see your flesh rip. I want the Reaper to know that he failed to protect his student, I want to know that even the greatest of the academy can bleed!"

Tsubaki stumbled backwards, but hit the concrete wall. She saw him raise his arm, and dived to the right, feeling bits of stone sting her arm as the blades hit the wall.

Giriko snarled in frustration, and spun around as Tsubaki scrambled to her feet. He lunged at her again, and though his hit wasn't fatal, the blades sliced a deep gash into her shoulder. She screamed in pain, and fell on her knees, reaching one hand to feel the cut. The minute she touched the ripped flesh, pain flashed through her body. She let out another cry of pain that was drowned in Giriko's laughter.

"So, the academy can fall. One of the greatest weapons a meister has ever wielded, crying over a cut."

Fury filled Tsubaki and she stumbled to her feet, one hand protecting the cut while the other gripped the wall. She was losing a good bit of blood, she felt dizzy and her vision was tainted with red. But she couldn't back down, not from this opponent. He couldn't harm her too greatly, right? She just had to survive until he got bored.

"We don't fall so easily," She snapped, wishing that she had the ability to back the statement up with an attack. All she could do was run from this enemy, she was a weapon with no meister. Under usual circumstances she would have been able to summon something, but Tsubaki was sure that Arachnophobia had placed some enchantment on the walls so that she'd be unable.

His arm was a normal one now, but Tsubaki knew he could still harm her without his blades. She sprung to the side, narrowly getting around him and retreating to another area of the cell.

"Little bitch," Giriko snapped, turning to attack her again.

The hand over the cut was slick with blood now, and she could barely stand. The maneuver had cost her a lot of energy. At this rate, she'd be unconscious soon. Tsubaki slumped against the wall and crashed to the floor, raising her blood-covered hand as a last effort to protect herself against the man slowly approaching her.

Laughter echoed against the cell walls again, and Tsubaki felt tears welling in her eyes. She didn't want any more pain. She stared at Giriko, unable to speak or do anything more but silently beg him to leave her alone.

In response, he kicked her hard in the stomach. The pain was stunning and unbelievably sharp. Blood rose in her throat and filled her mouth. She spat it out, tears knocked out of her eyes by the strength of the blow.

Her ears rang with Giriko's laughter and she curled around her injured stomach, tears rushing down her cheeks.

The next thing Tsubaki knew, she was being lifted in the air by her ponytail. She screamed, thrashing weakly. The hand holding her hair quickly moved to her throat, as the other one pinned her against the wall. His hand tightened on her windpipe, and it became much harder to breathe. As his hand tightened again, it became impossible.

"St…st….stop." She choked, her legs weakly kicking his. Through her fading vision, she saw him grin.

He dropped her, and she crashed to the ground on her injured shoulder. She was too weak to do more than whimper.

"Until next time, little sword." He said, turning around and strolling out of the cell.

Tsubaki lay on the floor, struggling to get her voice back so she could cry out. To whom, she didn't know. A guard, Mifune, even BlackStar, though there was little he could do to help her. She was afraid that the wound on her shoulder wouldn't stop bleeding without medical attention, and she had no intention of dying here.

"Hheell…pp…" She moaned, barely more than a hoarse whisper. "Hhellpp…pppleaseee….hhellppp…"

Tsubaki had no idea how long she called for help before someone finally came. It was a masked Arachnophobia guard. He rushed to her side.

"No…who's damaged the weapon? She's lost so much blood…Lady Arachne won't be pleased." The guard muttered.

She felt his cold hands finger her wounds and her vision began to fade. Tsubaki barely managed to stir before she slipped into unconsciousness.