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Fanfic / Breaking Point

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"The Kishin has been defeated, but for Chrona, the real battle has just begun...and it's inside his head. Old memories and new, confusing feelings conspire to shake the foundation of his fragile sanity."

A fanfic for Soul Eater. Post-anime, Chrona/Maka by RovingOtter.

The story can be found here.


Tropes:

  • Abusive Parents: Medusa, as per canon. In Chrona's flashbacks, she forces him to kill a child his age and a kitten he'd bonded with, constantly insults and emotionally abuses him, and presumably did not give a damn that he was cutting himself and attempting suicide from the age of nine. And that's not even getting into what she does in the main story, and especially Chrona's Repressed Memories...
  • Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Medusa stroking young Chrona’s hair in his flashbacks.
  • Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Ragnarok and Black Star when they get drunk on champagne at the school dance.
  • And I Must Scream: As Maka discovers, when you’re possessed by a witch, you’re helpless inside your own body, able to see and hear what’s happening but unable to do a thing about it, while someone else controls your body.
  • And This Is for...: Chrona does this while punching the crap out of Medusa to stop her from possessing his body.
    Chrona: This is for locking me in a dark room! This is for starving me! This is for making me kill bunnies! This is for making me betray my friends! This is for trying to hurt Maka! This is for being the worst mother ever!
  • Angst Coma: Chrona goes into one after his madness briefly takes over during a fight and he badly injures Black Star. According to Ragnarok, he’s had many short Angst Comas since childhood.
  • Ask a Stupid Question......: When Maka meets human form Ragnarok in Chrona’s soul.
    Maka: Ragnarok?
    Ragnarok: Who were you expecting? The Pope?
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Plenty of moments between Ragnarok and Chrona.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: Chrona and Medusa, though theirs is fairly unconventional to say the least.
  • Berserk Button: Maka and Chrona's biggest ones are anyone trying to harm the other.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Ragnarok acts like Crona's protective big brother, in his own Ragnarok way.
  • The Big Damn Kiss: Maka and Chrona have theirs in the Shibusen infirmary, after each of their Love Confessions.
  • Big "SHUT UP!": How Chrona stops Medusa’s Evil Gloating before it has a chance to get started.
    Medusa: It’s too late. You -
    Chrona: Shut up! (And This Is For... punching ensues)
  • Bittersweet Ending
  • Blood from the Mouth: Medusa, when Chrona elbows her in the gut.
  • Blood-Splattered Warrior: Chrona, after killing the Kishin egg that attacked him and Maka.
  • Body Horror: The Anti-Demon Wavelength making Medusa’s body literally rot away, complete with blood and fluids leaking out of the deteriorating parts.
  • Bound and Gagged: The little girl that Medusa forced young Chrona to kill.
  • Breaking Speech: Medusa gives a pretty cruel one to a paralyzed Maka, to both mock her for her relationship with Chrona and to intensify the madness of rage in her enough that Medusa can possess her body.
  • Bridal Carry: When Chrona panics during resonance practice and badly cuts his foot while running off, Stein carries him to the infirmary like this.
  • Calling The Old Lady Out: Her mother isn’t actually there, but Maka’s angry speech after she calls the number her mom sent to reach her and finds out that she’s already checked out and left, without waiting for Maka’s call, counts.
    Maka: It's been a long time, Mama. All these months, and not a single phone call. Not even a letter. Don't you have anything to say to me? (starts to cry) Spirit's a creep, but at least he's here. Aren't parents supposed to be around? They're not supposed to just disappear, are they, Mama?
  • Cooldown Hug: Maka gives two of these to Chrona, after his fights against Black Star and a Kishin egg that had threatened her.
  • Cry into Chest: Chrona does this with Maka out of relief that she’s accepted that he is intersex, and Maka does it with Chrona later when she’s getting emotional about her mother.
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Maka assures Chrona that if Spirit ever tries to hurt him, she'll eviscerate him (Spirit) with her bare hands.
  • Dance of Romance: Chrona and Maka share one at the Shibusen Halloween dance.
  • Dark Is Evil: In a sense. The sedative pills that Chrona accidentally overdoses on are deep black.
  • Dark Secret: Chrona is terrified of revealing to Maka that he is intersex, as he thinks of it as a “deformity.”
  • Declaration of Protection: Chrona to Maka - "I'll kill anyone who tries to hurt you."
  • Dinner and a Show: Technically breakfast and a show - Chrona’s first morning at Soul and Maka’s apartment has Blair trying to flip pancakes with her magic and failing spectacularly, and Ragnarok trying to gobble up all the food.
  • Does Not Like Men: Ragnarok frequently bashes on Maka’s Berserk Button by mocking her about this.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: To a dying Medusa, being pitied by Chrona is the ultimate disgrace.
  • Doting Parent: Spirit happily describes himself as a doting father, making Soul Face Palm.
  • Driven to Suicide: As a child, Chrona tried numerous times to kill himself to try and escape his terrible life, and was stopped every time by Ragnarok.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: In Chrona’s Repressed Memory, Medusa is drunk on wine, and it’s implied that she was doing this before little Chrona came in.
  • Dude, He's Like In A Coma: Thinking it might wake him from his Angst Coma, Maka tries to kiss an unconscious Chrona, but is stopped by Ragnarok bursting out of his body and yelling at her.
  • Dying Declaration of Love: One possible interpretation of Medusa's last word to Chrona.
  • Easily Forgiven: Maka realizes that even after everything Medusa has done, Chrona still loves her, which is why a small part of him is unwilling to kill her.
  • Empathic Environment: Justified as it’s the environment of Chrona’s soul - the normally sunny beach turns stormy during his Battle in the Center of the Mind with Medusa.
  • Eye Scream: To get Chrona to put his sword away and listen to her, Medusa threatens to gouge out Maka's eye, and makes her point by pressing her fingers in around the socket so the eye bulges.
    • And as she's dying, one of her eyes has burst, and the remains are running down her cheek.
  • Fainting: When Ragnarok flips Maka’s shirt up as a joke, it turns out she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath, and Chrona faints on seeing her breasts.
  • Face Your Fears: Medusa forces Chrona to relive the childhood memory that frightened him most over and over.
  • Famous Last Words: From Medusa to Chrona: “Live.”
  • Flashback Nightmare: Chrona has one to when Medusa gave him a pet kitten to take care of...and then forced him to kill it.
  • Forgiveness: Brought up several times, all concerning Chrona.
  • Freudian Excuse: Medusa of all people is implied to have one -
    Medusa: (to Chrona) You are the only one who has ever loved me. You are the only one who ever will.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: Black Star is implied to think so.
  • Good Hurts Evil: Medusa was able to survive her battle with Maka by splitting her soul, but the remnants of the Anti-Demon Wavelength that stuck with her (and that she can’t get rid of) have some truly nasty effects.
  • Grand Theft Me: Medusa possesses Maka's body to get to Chrona, whose body she actually wants to take in the hope that his black blood will let her resist the effects of the Anti-Demon Wavelength on her soul.
  • Guilt Complex: Chrona.
  • Half-Breed Discrimination: Chrona faces this from citizens of Death City for being half witch.
  • Harmful to Minors: The Reveal of what Chrona’s worst memory is - it started with him at five years old walking in on Medusa completely naked and essentially fucking herself with her snakes.
  • He Knows Too Much: The reason Medusa has Chrona kill the little girl in his flashback - she claims “She’s seen far too much.”
  • Hermaphrodite: Chrona is intersex.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: When he has no choice but to let Medusa possess his body, Chrona intends to kill her by resisting possession and fighting back, which would destroy both their souls. Thanks to Maka and his own Heroic Willpower, Chrona is able to survive.
  • I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: The reason Chrona is terrified to reveal his feelings for Maka - he believes she’ll be disgusted and not want to be around him anymore.
  • If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...:
    • Played with. Spirit appears to be giving this kind of speech to Chrona after he and Maka become a couple, but when Chrona doesn’t back down and tells him how he won’t let anything come between him and Maka, Spirit smiles, gives him a thumbs-up, and says, “You pass!” Turns out he was just testing Chrona, and is perfectly fine with their relationship. Then after he gives Maka and Chrona his blessing, he calmly tells Chrona, “It goes without saying, but if you ever do hurt her, I will murder you,” before walking off.
    • Downplayed with Soul, who just tells Chrona, “Be good to her, buddy.”
  • Imagine Spot: Chrona imagines the worst-case scenario of Maka's reaction to his Love Confession.
    He could imagine it all too easily - Maka approaching him, eyes downcast, a look of quiet, resigned sadness on her face. Chrona...I’m sorry, but... Green eyes lifting slowly to his, filled with pity that didn’t quite mask the trace of disgust. I don’t think we should be friends anymore.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Black Star gets stabbed through the shoulders, chest, arms, and legs when he unwittingly triggers Chrona’s madness in their fight.
  • Inelegant Blubbering: Spirit and it freaks poor Chrona out.
    Chrona: Is it...like that? When I do it?
    Maka: Huh?
    Chrona: When I cry, I mean? Is it anything like...
    Maka: No! God, no! It’s not at all.
  • Innocent Blue Eyes: Maka notes that Chrona has these.
  • Insane Equals Violent: When Chrona’s madness is triggered, he goes into a killing frenzy.
  • Insecure Love Interest: Chrona to Maka, because of the shitty childhood.
  • Ironic Nursery Tune: Does Medusa singing "All Through The Night" to five-year-old Chrona sound like a Pet the Dog moment to you? You are wrong, my friend.]]
  • I Shall Taunt You: Medusa does this all through her Breaking Speech to Maka, so she can strengthen the madness inside Maka enough that she can possess her.
  • It Makes Sense in Context: "If you don't show your face, I'm going to beat the shit out of this beach!"
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ragnarok gets enough Pet the Dog moments with Chrona to qualify as this.
  • Kids Are Cruel: The little bastards who throw rocks at Chrona, call him a witch, and tell him to go die.
  • Kick the Dog: When six-year-old Chrona can't kill a person as he was told do, Medusa hits him with this:
    Medusa: You worthless little coward. Is there nothing you can do? I can scarcely believe you came out of my body. Perhaps my real child sneaked away and is hiding somewhere. Perhaps you're just the afterbirth. I should have thrown you away with the rest of the blood and filth.
    • She says it to enrage Maka (which it does) but Medusa calling Chrona a whore when she finds out that he and Maka had sex counts too.
  • Kiss of Death: When Chrona allows Medusa to possess his body to save Maka, she puts her snake in her child’s body by kissing him on the lips.
    Medusa: Now, come give your mother a kiss.
    • She also sticks her tongue in his mouth while doing it. Yes, she's only doing it to get her snake down his throat. Yes, it's Squicky anyway.
  • Lack of Empathy: Medusa more or less describes herself as this.
  • Laughing Mad: Medusa lets out a few wild laughs in chapter 15.
  • Like a God to Me: In the narration, Chrona refers to Maka as his goddess.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: Of a sort. In their Battle in the Center of the Mind, Medusa is able to trap Chrona inside his worst memory and make him relive it from the beginning, over and over, to weaken his soul so she can take his body.
  • Love Confession: Chrona gives his to Maka in the form of a notebook he’s poured his heart out into. It sends him into a panic, terrified that he’s ruined their friendship, but it’s the last little push Maka needs to realize that she is in love with Chrona.
  • Love Redeems: As Chrona explains to Medusa -
    Chrona: Even you don't want to be alone. That's why you had me, isn't it? You wanted someone to love you. Someone who would always love you, even if you threw him away. Maybe...maybe, deep down, you wanted salvation. But...it doesn't work that way. Being loved can't save a person's soul. I think I just realized that...it wasn't her love for me that saved me. It was my love for her. That love is mine, no matter what. You can't take it away, even if you kill me.
  • Like Brother and Sister:
    • Maka even thinks that having Soul for a partner is like having a big brother.
    • Ragnarok and Chrona act much like brothers.
  • Marshmallow Hell:
    • An overenthusiastic Blair puts Chrona in this, and Chrona does not want. She does it again later when hugging Chrona and Maka both, and Ragnarok takes the opportunity to get a look at her cleavage.
    • One of very few examples where it's not funny in the slightest: part of Chrona's Repressed Memories is Medusa holding his head against her bare breasts.
  • Mercy Kill: How Medusa tries to convince young Chrona to kill a child his age - she tells him that if he won't kill her, she'll use the little girl in her experiments.
    Medusa: Look at it as sparing her the additional pain, if you will.
  • Off with His Head!: How Chrona kills the Kishin egg Freddy the Axe.
  • Oh, Crap!: Maka when she goes into Chrona's room to find him passed out on the floor, having accidentally overdosed on his prescription sedatives.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: How Black Star tries to say that he’s fine after mad!Chrona makes shish-kebob out of him.
  • Out-of-Character Alert: When Chrona senses that there's something off about Maka, he asks her, "What's our word?" She tells him she's forgotten and he knows right away that's it's not actually her.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: From Medusa to a random girl she murders: "You picked an unfortunate night to go for a walk."
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: When talking with the little shadow in Chrona's soul about what Chrona's worst memory is, Ragnarok is relatively calm when he thinks it was some kind of torture or experiment of Medusa's. When the thought occurs to him that Medusa might have done something else to young!Crona, he gets furious.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: A weird example from Ragnarok to Chrona. He’s naming all the things that annoy him about Chrona, but at the same time trying to get him to come out so Ragnarok will know he isn’t dead. He’s essentially talking about how much he doesn’t want Chrona to die, but doing it in his usual way of masking his real, affectionate feelings.
    Ragnarok: Oh, that's so like you! God, you piss me off! You think you can leave me behind? Just run off and die without me? Like fuck! Do you have any idea how much that pisses me off? You know what else pisses me off about you? The way you eat the cream from the middle of the cookies and just leave the cookie part! And the way you always obsess so damn long about folding the napkins when you make everyone else's lunch! You think they care about how neatly you fold the fucking napkins? Fuck, you could give Kid a run for his money! And you know what else? You know what else I can't stand? The way you always talk in your sleep, and the way you can never decide what fucking brand of toothpaste to buy, so you just stare at them all like a fucking rabbit in headlights until I grab something off the shelf, and the way you always put exactly two sugar cubes in your fucking chamomile tea, and the way you always say 'thank you' to me when I heal a wound or something, even though I never say it to you, and... You think you're the only one with problems, Chrona? You never heard me cry, did you? Even though I went through the same shit you did, I never did that, not once. God knows you did it enough for both of us. Every night, hour after hour. You never shut up...until I'd start hitting you, and then you'd cry harder, but after a few minutes you'd stop, and then...then finally you'd fall asleep and...(starts crying) You can't fucking die.
  • Repressed Memories: Chrona has one memory that frightened and confused him so much, that he locked it away deep inside his soul and forced himself to forget. What is this memory? It's the only genuine affection Medusa ever showed him, and it is messed up.
  • Sadistic Choice: Medusa gives Chrona the choice of letting her possess his body, or watching her kill Maka (whose body she is possessing) along with herself.
  • Safe Word: Maka and Chrona decide on “Corner” for theirs.
  • Sand In My Eyes: Ragnarok was not crying, that was sweat.
  • Scar Survey: Maka and Chrona have a brief one during their love scene.
  • Security Cling:
    • Chrona does this to Maka a few times.
    • Young!Chrona clings to Medusa twice in his flashbacks.
  • Self-Harm: Chrona has been cutting himself since he was a child. Since coming to Shibusen he's been trying to stop, but his self harm scars form a big dark starburst mark on his chest.
  • Shaming the Mob: Maka attempts to do this with the mob of Death City people trying to keep Chrona out of Shibusen. She gets a rock to the head for her trouble.
  • Shipper on Deck: Soul ships Maka and Chrona hard once he realizes they both love each other.
  • Ship Tease: A few for Ragnarok/Tsubaki, of all pairings.
  • Taking You with Me: How Chrona tries to kill Medusa (see Heroic Sacrifice).
    Medusa: Stop this! You'll kill us both!
    Chrona: That's the idea.
  • Talking in Your Sleep: According to Ragnarok, Chrona does this.
  • Talk to the Fist: See Big "SHUT UP!"
  • Team Chef: Chrona puts a lot of time and effort into cooking for his friends.
    Kid: (seeing the meal Crona made specially for him) Symmetrical! Perfectly symmetrical! And look at this. Eight octopi, eight legs each...and they’re arranged in a figure eight.
  • Tearful Smile: Maka, when Chrona returns alive from his Battle in the Center of the Mind.
  • Tears of Fear: Chrona, several times.
  • Tears of Remorse: Young!Chrona, after he’s forced to kill the kitten he had bonded with.
  • Terms of Endangerment: Medusa calling five-year-old Chrona "sweet child." She does mean it affectionately, but the context turns it into this.
  • There Are No Therapists: Averted. While not a licensed counselor, Stein understands how Crona feels and often helps him deal with his issues in a healthy way.
  • Thicker Than Water: Medusa believes this.
    He would come to her, she assured herself. Once things got bad enough in Shibusen, he would run to her arms. In the end, he always returned. She was his first - first bond, first loyalty, first everything - and she would be his last. The tie of blood was too strong to resist.
  • Third-Person Person: Blair tends to do this. Maka tells her to stop it and that it’s not as cute as she thinks.
  • Tough Love: After forcing him to kill his pet kitten, Medusa tells young Chrona that she makes him do things that cause him pain to make him stronger. Even as a child, Chrona doesn't buy it.
  • Trademark Favorite Food:
    • From this and the companion fics, microwavable pizza pockets seem to be this for Ragnarok.
    • Maka says that hers is potato soup.
  • Troubled Fetal Position: Chrona does this when he's panicking over how Maka will react to his Love Confession.
  • Unbroken Vigil: Maka holds two over a hospitalized Chrona: once when he’s in his Angst Coma, and again when he’s unconscious from an accidental overdose of sedatives.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Medusa has one when Chrona continually refuses to let her take over his body.
    Medusa: NO! YOU THINK YOU CAN ABANDON ME NOW? I WAS THE FIRST! I WAS HERE BEFORE ANY OF THEM! I WILL NOT BE CAST ASIDE!
    Medusa: You can't leave me! I created you! I made you what you are! You're mine! Mine!
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend: Maka to Chrona, with her sycthe.
  • Weakness Turns Her On: Medusa suggests that this is the real reason Maka is with Chrona, to get her angry.
    Medusa: Or perhaps you like the power. No doubt you could crush its feeble little heart, if you chose. A few well-chosen words...so easy, like crushing a ladybug between your fingers.
  • Wham Episode: Just when Chrona and Maka have admitted their feelings and are happy together, Chapter 10 reveals that Medusa is still alive and is coming after Chrona.
  • What Is This Thing You Call "Love"??: Medusa claims that she cannot love, and tells Chrona that it is not real while secretly wanting very much to know what it feels like.
  • When He Smiles: Maka thinks it's like this when Chrona smiles.
  • Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Chrona calls Medusa the worst mother ever, to her face, while he’s punching it to a bloody pulp.
  • "X" Marks the Hero: Ragnarok, in his human form in Chrona’s soul, has an X-shaped scar over the bridge of his nose, though he’s a Nominal Hero at best. One of the author’s other fics (in the same continuity) reveals he got it from his abusive father, who carved it into his face with a broken bottle.
  • You're Not My Mother: Inverted. When Medusa calls Chrona her good child, he tells her, "Don't call me that. I'm not your child, not anymore."

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