Hello everyone! It had been far, far too long. I hate that i'm gone for a while, and then i have to come back with a little sad news...

This is the last part. 

I know, I know. It's sad. But I left the story in a place where I could use Mari in other things, like I do. I apologize, because I'm terrible at endings, and it's so sad to see this one go. 

Thank you to all of you who've been there since the beginning. And remember, just because this one is over, doesn't mean that you can't read my other stories! I have another finished one with about 225k reads on it, that people seemed to like, and I'm thinking of starting a new one to add to the list of things i have to be constantly writing. 

I love all of you, please stay in touch. (Via instagram: @[email protected]_k.u.n

Azure.

Mari's body trembled as it began to revert back to normal. She stared at Arachne, her hands shaking. "Give... give her back." Mari said, her teeth turning back to normal teeth.

Her friends were about ten feet behind her and they watched, Kidd looking as if he wanted to run forward. It was as if the room was holding it's breath, the shadows waiting for something and watching carefully to see what was going to happen.

Arachne laughed a little, hiding her sly smile behind her hand. "Oh, dear. You actually think I was going to give her back if you came? No, no, no." she said. Kidd made an enraged noise and Stein held him back. Arachne's eyes were bright as she looked over Mari's frail body. "What could you ever give me?"

Arachne held out her hand, a small, flickering blue soul appearing in her palm. It almost looked as if different shades of red and purple were fading in and out from it. She smiled at Mari's black eyes, which had seemed to grow hopeful through her tears that had started flowing. Arachne closed her palm around the soul, and after a split second, she smushed it between her fingertips, the soul snuffing out.

Mari stared at Arachne's hand, her palm opening to show nothing but empty space. The room had gone into a state beyond silent, and Mari fell to her knees. Her tears had stopped, but now her hands were shaking.

Arachne just started laughing, holding her body with her pale hands. "Your faces!" she said, her laughter feeling like it was tearing into Mari's heart. "Did all of you really think that I would give the child's soul back? No!" she said, moving her hand in front of her face and black magic gathered together and formed a fan, covering half of Arachne's face. "You really are stupid." She said.

Mari looked up at her, staying completely still. She'd stopped crying, her black eyes looking dead. She'd lost everything. Again. She looked down at her right hand, watching her fingers grow longer. They grew past the point that her claws usually did, and she watched as it elongated into a claymore blade. She felt her throat close as she looked at the blade. It had been years, even before she had been asleep for all those years, since her body had transformed to her actual weapon form. For the longest time it had just been this deformed recollection of what she had been.

She looked up at Arachne, the woman distracted by laughing at her friends shocked faces. Mari felt a quiet pulse of magic run over her, too quiet for even the powerful witch to sense. It was simple. It wouldn't make everyone blind to Mari's existence.

At lightning speed, Mari move forward faster than anyone could ever track, and slashed her arm out at Arachne. The claymore blade seemed to extended farther than it ever had, and sliced into the witches neck.

There was a pleasantly surprised expression on Arachne's face as her head flew to the side, her lips turning up in a smile, her eyes landing on Mari for a moment. She seemed to whisper something, and Mari felt magic hit her. In front of her, Arachne's body looked as if it shivered, and then an explosion of spider crawled from her bleeding neck.

They shot out in all directions, many hitting Mari, though she didn't care. She could hear her friend's voices calling and the sound of them dodging them. After a few minutes, the swarm stopped, and Arachne's headless body fell to the ground with all the dead spiders.

Mari looked back at her friends, her hands normal again and tears flowing from her cheeks. She looked over them, her blue eyes looking broken.

"Your eyes..." Black Star said, and Tsubaki transformed into human form next to him. They were all looking at her, their eyes full of wonderment.

"Mari..." Kidd said, and she felt his arms go around her. She leaned into Kidd, resting her head on his shoulder. "It's okay." He said.

"No it's not." She said. She looked up at him. "But... but at least I have you." She said.

A sad smile came over Kidd's face and Mari felt something drop in the pit of her stomach. Kidd looked down at his stomach, a deep gash that must've been from the spiders in Arachne's body. Mari looked up into Kidd's eyes, her lips opening a little with disbelief. She couldn't loose Kidd too...

He moved a strand of hair behind her ear, his fingertips soft. "I forgot how beautiful your blue eyes were." He said, looking into Mari sky blue eyes. "Though," he whispered, swaying a little. Mari held him up, her hands quivering as his tried to catch his breath, a drop of blood from his lips tracing a line down his chin. He caught his breath, managing a smile even though Mari knew that he must've been in so much pain.

"But to me," he said, his hand roughly holding her cheek as he coughed once, spraying blood onto Mari's shirt. "You were always... beautiful." He said. Kidd fell forward and Mari cried out, catching him and lowering him to the ground. She held him close, her tears starting again. There was a panicked sound from her friends, and Mari felt all of their emotions; fear. Fear for Kidd.

Kidd laughed a little as he looked down at the wound on his stomach. "At least it's symmetrical." He said. Mari's lip trembled, and she put her hands on the wound, attempting to stop the large flow of blood. Kid just smiled, and Mari could hear Maka making a call back to academy, frantically telling them to bring help. They were all freaking out, but Mari blocked it out and kept her eyes locked with Kidd's beautiful gold ones.

Mari tried to hold the wound closed with her hands, but it wasn't working. Kidd smiled up at her, his hand shaking as he tried to raise it to her cheek. "It's... It's okay Mari." He said, his voice shaking, and Mari could tell he was getting weaker. His blood was all over Mari's hands and her tears dripped down onto his face.

She ran her hand down his cheek, her lips trembling. "Kidd..." she whispered, her hair falling into her eyes. He tucked it behind one of her ears, a streak of his crimson blood streaking her face. She tried to press the wound shut with her hands again, but her arms just became stained with red.

"Mari... I've lost too much blood. Even for a reaper." He said, the amount of red staining the front of his body so much it made Mari's hands shake more. He looked up at the sealing above them, the torches on the walls lighting the walls ominously. "The stars... they're so beautiful tonight." He whispered, blood trailing from his lips.

Mari pulled him up into her arm, a sob escaping her lips. They were inside. There weren't any stars. But Mari didn't say a thing. He reached his hand up and pulled her lips down to his. Mari held him in her shaking arms, his blood everywhere. When Kidd pulled away, his eyes were almost closed.

"Kidd... please..." Mari said.

He shook his head slightly. "Mari... I'm not going to survive." He said. A faint smile creased his lips. "I'm glad we tried to rescued her." He said, referring to the soul that Arachne had smashed. "I wish that we could've been able to tell her that we loved her." He said.

She held his stomach with one hand, and her other held his head up. "No, Kidd..." she whispered, resting her forehead on his. "I can't live without you..." she whispered. "I'll die... please... you're all that I live for." She whispered.

Tears escaped Kidd's eyes, and he held her face with one hand. "But... you can live for me..." he said. "Because I love..." his voice was so faint, that the sound of their friends crying almost covered it. "...I love you..." he said, his hand falling. His fingertips traced a path down her cheek, and his eyes closed all the way.

"Please..." she said, her shoulders shaking. Kidd's lips were curved up in a smile, and Mari felt her heart break. She could hear her friends starting to cry for help again, but Mari wondered why they were calling. There was no one. Kidd was dead. No one could save him.

"In the end," Mari whispered. "Being a witch, being able to heal myself, all this power..." she said, her tears slowing as the realization caused a deeper grief in her; something tears couldn't show. It was the feeling of a thousand hands pushing her to the ground, crushing her fingers, destroying her body.

"This power couldn't even save you." She said. She felt a hand on her shoulder, but she didn't look away from Kidd's face, his beautiful features almost more angelic in death. The again, that's what he was. Death.

"Mari, I could try reviving him—" Stein said, the older man's voice cracking. It was unlike Stein to show emotion like this.

"No." Mari said, feeling Kidd's cold hands. "He's already dead." She said. It was like saying the words only made the truth sink in deeper. She held Kidd's face close to hers, pressing his still warm cheek into hers.

There was a sound, and Mari looked up slowly to see Arachne's disembodied head seeming to speak. She watched as the witches eyes opened, sending a shiver down Mari's spine when she saw the almost black purple of the woman's eyes.

"Relive this pain." The woman said, and it almost sounded like a hundred voices were speaking behind hers. "For better, or worse." She said, smiling.

She opened her mouth wide, black magic and the faint outlines of spiders crawling from her lips. The world seemed to slow down as she heard the yells starting in her friend's throats. She watched as the magic moved faster than it should have been able to, and engulfed the entire room.

Mari held on tight to Kidd's body as an icy pain ripped over her body. She screamed as it became too much for her mind, and she snapped, her body breaking and holding close to Kidd's form as she started shaking. It was silent, only the pounding of her heart in her ears.

And then with a snap, everything seemed to wash into reality.

Hands caught Mari as she felt her body sway, beginning to fall. "Mari!" a voice said, and she looked up to see a head of black hair. Mari blinked a few times, her senses spinning. There was something on her head, a hat maybe, and she felt the hands that had caught her lift her upright into a standing position.

She looked around, feeling dazed. The last thing that she had remembered was the black magic spilling out of Arachne, envelopin her, Kidd, and her friends. She had felt so cold for a split second, and it had almost felt surreal.

She looked up into the person's eyes that had caught her, and her heart seemed to stop. Kidd was standing there in front of her, younger than he had been when Mari and watched him die. He looked sixteen, less worn than he had seemed, but above everything, alive. Mari felt tears start in her eyes as she looked into Kidd's golden eyes.

"Kidd?" She whispered. He looked a little confused, but she just moved her arms around his neck and began to cry. She felt his arms tentatively around her, and then, after a moment, his arms tightened, feeling more like they had when Kidd had held her only hours before.

"Mari..." he said again, but this time with a different cadence. "You're... I know you... you..." He said. Mari pulled back, feeling Liz and Patti's eyes on them, their looks confused. Mari saw tears in Kidd's eyes, his mind unconsciously knowing that he knew Mari.

Mari let her fingers move over his face, his gold eyes searching her blue ones for the lost memories that weren't there anymore. But Mari knew. Kidd knew. Something flashed behind Kidd's eyes, and he leaned forward, placing his forehead on hers. "I remember you." He whispered.

"I love you."