#Maka starting to question the actual morality of this job

[ourlastbastion]

Wild Fire Ch. 19

AO3

FFNet

To say that things hadn’t been going according to what anyone had wanted was a major understatement.

Maleko was gone, that in itself was bad. No one had been able to find him, not even using soul perception. The boy had figured out how to use Soul Protect during his time at the academy, or maybe he already knew how and never used it until this point. There was no use wondering when he figured out how to use it, not when he was already gone without a trace.

They’d almost found him, almost caught him. Kim and Jackie had crossed paths with Maleko during their mission. They’d killed the kishin egg and found the child protecting a woman from it—he’d been really hurt, from what Kim had said, but he refused her attempts to help and fled from her. She’d chased him halfway through the city before losing track of the child once more, which she blamed to have been due to a citizen interfering. He had misread the situation, from the reports that had come in, and thought that Kim was a rather young child abductor.

While Maka commended the man on trying to stop what he had thought was an attempted kidnapping, she couldn’t help but loathe him at the same time. They’d been so close to getting Maleko back, and then he slipped through their fingers.

He was a sorcerer, the sworn enemy of the DWMA and all that it stood for, an enemy to humanity. But, Maka couldn’t hate him. No, she wanted the academy to catch him because she was scared for him. The boy was just that; a boy. A kid. One who couldn’t read, could barely form sensible sentences, who understood the bare minimum of how to live in society. He’d be eaten up alive. He’d wander into a street and get run over. Follow the wrong person, find himself hurt, or end up killing someone because he was scared.

Maleko wasn’t a bad person, Maka knew that he wasn’t, she understood that he wasn’t. He acted based on fight or flight reasoning, if he was scared, if he felt threatened, he was going to fight. He may just be a kid, but he wasn’t weak; he had magic on his side and a normal human, no matter how tough they may think they were, would get killed.

If Maleko started hurting people, he was going to end up on Death’s execution list. His age didn’t matter, Lord Death had sent BlackStar and Tsubaki out to hunt Angela, and she was a kid, too. It didn’t matter what anyone might want or say, if Maleko became a threat, he’d be placed on the list.

It was hard.

It was hard for Maka to hate him, to justify him being hunted. Any other witch, any other sorcerer, and she wouldn’t see an issue.

But, she knew Maleko. Not in the same way she had known Medusa. No, she knew that Maleko was a kind kid, that he was sweet, he didn’t want to hurt people, he didn’t want to cause problems out of some malicious intent. No, he was just a child who wanted to play with his friends and have fun, like any other child.

And Maka had considered him a friend. She and Soul both had.

How could anyone be expected to hunt down someone they played with, someone they befriended? He’d basically become a part of the family.

He was nothing like a sorcerer was supposed to be. Not some horrible monster bent on destroying everything. He was as sweet as any kid. He hadn’t really done anything to become an enemy, other than just being born.

Maka hated this conflicted feeling more than anything. On one hand, his very race was an enemy to humanity, a threat to everyone; when Maleko grew up he’d likely be like his peers, killing and destroying all he sees. But, even if that was true, Maka couldn’t see him as anything but the kind and sweet boy that she had spent time with. He’d never have hurt a fly, well, he probably would, but not out of some malicious want. And, Maleko hadn’t even run away from the school because he hated them—she hoped that wasn’t the case. Rather, because he was scared.

Maleko just wanted to find his mother, more than anything he wanted to be with his mother again. And though it pained her to say it, Maka could understand how he felt, wanting so badly to be able to see and touch someone you loved so dearly. No, she couldn’t understand how he felt, not completely, at least Maka still got postcards from her mother so she knew what she was up to, where she had been, that she knew her mother was still alive. Maleko had nothing, only knew that the people he trusted intended to kill his.

That was a betrayal that would cut deeper than any knife.

It only made Maka feel worse in the end, too, made her wonder constantly if she could have done something, anything, that could have kept him here. Here where he would be safe, here where she could have maybe explained why they had to catch his mother, how his mother was doing bad things. Could she even explain it if she had the chance? Was there really any justification for murdering someone’s mother?

Maka wanted to scream, she wanted to hit something, but she did neither. Her entire life she had believed in a few simple laws, she hadn’t realized how black and white she had viewed the world until Maleko turned everything grey. Her very perception was unraveling and she didn’t know what to do. What if there were others like him, witches and sorcerers who had done nothing wrong but just be born, yet were still hunted and killed all the same? How could that ever be right? How could someone be considered good in that case?

Closing her eyes, Maka sank down into a crouch, her back against the wall of the empty hall, her head buried into her crossed arms.

That wasn’t the worst of it too, that wasn’t the only part that had made her start questioning and doubting, though Maleko was a big impact on her, and likely a few others as well. He wasn’t the only one.

There were clips, videos circulating about. Clearly cut off from a larger one, probably purposely planted while the full video was kept private. A speech by Kai Palakiko herself addressing her followers. Maka had little love for the woman, she may be Maleko’s mother, she may be the most important person to him, but that didn’t change the fact that she had murdered so many people.

But, the things she had said, it had struck a chord with Maka, her voice echoed in her mind and wouldn’t leave her be.

Children. Maka was only fifteen, but she hardly saw herself as a child—when was the last time she even considered herself one? But, she still was just a kid, as were her friends, her classmates, they were still children. Some of the newer students were only twelve, others were nearing eighteen, legally none of them were adults, morally they were all still kids.

And yet… they were fighting wars on behalf of Lord Death. They were hunting down the worst of the worst, risking their lives to protect others, to protect the world. Maka saw no shame in that, saw nothing wrong with protecting others and in doing her part to keep the world safe. Yet at the same time…

Just how much of her childhood had she sacrificed to become a meister?

She respected Lord Death, admired him greatly, he was a great leader, the best their world could have asked for, and she would never question his judgment, not openly of course. But at the same time, the things that Kai had pointed out, Maka had never realized just how true it was. They were children fighting an adult's war.

She recalled BlackStar and Tsubaki talking about their mission with Mifune and Angela, how her friends had spared both in the end. Would anyone else have done the same if given the chance? If killing those two would have given someone the chance to become a Death Scythe right there and then, would they say no and let a child live? Maka wanted to say that they would but she didn’t know.

And then there was themselves. Were they being groomed, intentionally or not, to be soldiers? If Maka sat down and think about it—and she had done quite a bit of that since seeing the clips—they were by definition child soldiers for Lord Death.  The DWMA was a type of military organization, they were being taught and trained to fight and kill.

If any other group were to do what the DWMA was doing, if a country decided to create an academy to train children to fight while sending them on combative missions regularly, it would be considered a war crime. Yet no one blinked at the DWMA doing the very same thing.

Maka didn’t want to doubt the school, didn’t want to doubt Lord Death or any of this, being a meister, being the greatest mesiter and to make the strongest Death Scythe had been her dream for as long as she could remember. But, now everything was unraveling and nothing seemed right. It made her feel like she couldn’t trust her own judgment, it made her doubt what Lord Death, what the teachers, what her father might say.

Why couldn’t things go back to being simple? Why couldn’t everything just… just…

“Maka?” the question was soft, so soft that Maka had almost missed it, but even drowning in her own thoughts she had managed to catch the soft, trembling whisper and snap her head to attention.

Standing before her was Crona, hunched over and fiddling their fingers nervously. They looked concerned for her, but unsure how to address it or approach her on it. Beside them was Soul, much more relaxed, though his face gave away how he felt with the glint of worry in his eyes. They waited quietly for Maka to speak, both watching her carefully.

She offered them a smile, though a little strained. “Hey guys,” she said. “Is something going on?”

Her two closest friends just glanced at one another. Then Soul bent forward, holding a hand out to Maka. She took it and he pulled her to her feet with such ease that she may as well have weighed nothing to him.

“Stein says that they may be able to locate where Kai has been hiding soon,” he began when he let go of her hand, letting Maka dust the dirt and dust off the back of her skirt. “As soon as they can make certain where she’s hiding, Lord Death plans to strike, getting rid of her once and for all.”

“Oh? That’s good, we can finally put an end to this.” That was good news, really good news. Maka wanted to feel happy about that, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel even the tiniest bit glad. Maleko flashed through her mind, he’d be alone, an orphan once Kai was gone, he’d never be able to trust anyone from the DWMA again, and he’d have no one left.

It must have shown in her voice, or maybe on her face because Crona and Soul glanced at each other once more like they were talking to each other with their eyes alone so that Maka wouldn’t understand it.

“They, um, Professor Stein said that they’ll need all the strength they c-can. So, students are signing up to join the attack,” Crona spoke up, averting their eyes to the floor. “We thought we should let you know. In case you want to go.”

She wondered how many students were going to sign up, and how many would back off, too confused and conflicted by what Kai had said. This would undoubtedly be a terrible battle, there was going to be a lot of casualties. No one would say it out loud, but a lot of them were bound to die in this fight, people on both sides.

And they’d be killing a lot of people, humans. Sure Kai may have a few witches or sorcerers in her ranks, but apparently, the vast majority of her followers were humans. Average, normal humans, ones who weren’t on Lord Deaths list, ones who weren’t kishin eggs, with souls still glowing a pure blue. A lot of them would be killed, even if they were given orders to capture and not kill, there was still going to be a lot of blood spilled.

Maka wouldn’t have considered it before, wouldn’t have given it much thought, she’d be going into battle to rid the world of evil people to make it a safer place, she’d be doing Lord Death’s bidding, and that was a good thing, an honor even.

But why didn’t it feel like such an honor anymore?

“Alright, thanks for letting me know,” she said, trying to sound pump, grinning and twirling on her feet so her back was to them while she started walking to where missions were posted. She didn’t want them to worry that something might be wrong, she was still the same old Maka! “Come on, let’s go sign up, then! This is a good opportunity, and we already know the others got their names on the list!” Maybe she’d be able to find Maleko out there, she might be able to at least keep him from dying a pointless death.

---

Maleko never felt quite so small as he sat on the couch, head hung low and hands clasped together. Sitting across from him was Robert, having dragged the sofa-chair over so that it faced Maleko perfectly. The man said nothing, just watching Maleko carefully in silence, his laptop still open, the screen frozen on a closeup of Kai. It took all of Maleko’s willpower to keep from looking over at it.

It’d been so long since he’d seen her face, heard her voice. When he heard her talking, he’d been so happy, so excited that he hadn’t thought it through darting down the stairs and crying out to her. Knowing that it had only been a video, his heart felt broken.

Mickey and Maggie were watching them, he knew they were watching him while they pretending to bustle about in the kitchen, reorganizing clean dishes in their shelves, or wiping down spotless counters to look like they were occupied. But, they were watching and listening, had done been doing so ever since Robert shooed them away so he could have a ‘private talk’ with Maleko.

His fingers were trembling and Maleko’s eyes kept glancing back and forth on the floor, too afraid to look up. He could run, he could set fire to it all and run away. But, he didn’t want to hurt them; they had been nice to him, kind to him. The DWMA had been nice and kind as well, his mind supplied, but then look how that turned out.

Maleko swallowed, gripping his wrist tightly, trying to keep his entire body from shaking.

“So,” Robert began loudly, causing Maleko to flinch and try to sink deeper into the couch, to no avail. He still refused to look up at the man as he spoke, keeping his head hung low. “I’m going to take a guess and say that your real name isn’t Asahi, now is it?”

He said nothing, kept his head down and bit his lip as his hands trembled. His instinct was to set loose fire and flee, every part of his body said to flee and it took all his strength to stay seated. He couldn’t keep the whimper from escaping, though.

Robert watched patiently, leaning forward as he rested his chin on his folded hands. “I had that suspicion when I came home to find you integrated into my home. That girl certainly hadn’t been calling you Asahi when we met on the streets,” he pointed out, causing Maleko to flinch again.

Maleko knew what was going to happen. Robert was going to know who he was and he was going to send him back to the academy, back to the DWMA where he would lose any chance at all of finding his mother, he’d be locked up, this time in a better cell that wouldn’t give him a chance to flee.  He’d be trapped, like the princesses in those storybooks, except he didn’t have a knight or prince who’d come and save him, he had no one but his mother.

Swallowing hard, he fought back tears, his shoulders were starting to shake.

If Robert noticed, or even cared, he made no sign of it. “Your name is Maleko, isn’t it? Maleko Palakiko?”

Finally, Maleko raised his head just enough to look at Robert. Was there any point in denying it when the man looked so certain? “Better to come out with the truth, little sun,” Taka’s voice echoing in his mind was the only comfort Maleko could find in this situation. He knew the bird was near, but he also knew that there was little Taka could do to help him.

So, he heeded the advice. Maleko looked at Robert and gave a timid nod. “Yeh—yes,” he murmured, barely more than a whisper.

With that, he prepared for the worst. For Robert to start yelling, for Maggie to call the police, or someone at the school, even for Kim and Jackie to burst through the door and grab him. He was ready for what little happiness and comfort he had found with this family to be torn away and for them to turn bad, mean, to turn cruel. At least if they were like that, if they turned into bad people, he wouldn’t feel bad if he hurt them trying to escape.

Something clattered to the ground in the kitchen, he heard Maggie and Mickey talking in hushed whispers, using words that he couldn’t understand, words that were too big and too complicated. Robert's gaze left Maleko for only a brief moment to look behind him to the kitchen, giving an obvious eye roll at whatever his wife and son had done before letting his attention flitter back over to Maleko.

No one started yelling yet, no one seemed angry. At least, not in any way that Maleko could recognize. Still, Maleko felt on edge, waiting for the shoe to drop.

And it did drop a few moments later. Just not in the way that Maleko had been anticipating. Instead of screaming, panic, or even rage, what happened was that Robert started laughing. Loud, boisterous, honest laughter. He leaned back in his chair, hands on his stomach as he laughed as if this had been the funniest thing in the world to him. Maleko couldn’t understand it.

Eventually, the laughter came to an end, and Robert had calmed down. There was a strange twinkle in his eye as he leaned forward, smiling at Maleko as if the boy had been the most interesting thing in the world.

“Well, in that case, that settles it,” Robert declared with a nod to himself.

Maggie took a step from the kitchen, hands held to her chest. “Honey?” she asked carefully.

It seemed not even her or Mickey understood what Robert was getting at right now, which made Maleko feel a little bit better about being so confused. Robert was already pulling his laptop back to his side, opening a new tab and typing something into it without even waiting.

“I had thought there little point in any of us going, it’s not as if we can offer much combative help in the end,” he said, glancing at Maggie and then back to his computer. “But if we have Maleko with us, we need to head up and join with the rest.”

What was he even talking about? Maleko glanced back at Maggie and Mickey, searching for the answers that they didn’t have. He swallowed, looked back to Robert with a confused whimper in his throat.

But when Robert looked at him, he had a smile on his face. “Well, Maleko. How about we get you back to your mother?”