REBORN

by Oblivion-Time

FemRuleAU! Girls rule and boys roll. That is what the society was all about. Punishing the males for almost killing Mother Nature and only using them as tools for labor or reproduction. It is my turn to take the leap into the adult world, to move out of my mother's house and into my own. But with adulthood comes sacrifices, which mine is to be forced to get a male bodyguard slave.

REBORN

The smell of the lavender candles fills the air, successfully extinguishing the scent of mold and rotten food that once was left inside of the house. The white paint on the walls was plain and had darkened over the years and so had the ceiling.

"This is… a project." My mother, Kami wrinkles her nose as she looks skeptically around what I picture will become the living room. "Are you sure this is the house? I know you said you wanted to renovate one, but this one, you will have to put in a lot of effort into making this one presentable."

"I told you." I said as I scattered all the scented candles on the window sills in a poor attempt at hiding the bad scent. "I have already bought this house. This is the house I want to live in."

Kami sighs loudly and walks up to me beside the window.

Ever since I showed her this house, she never really got it why I wanted this house. It wasn't because of the house's condition I bought it for. Sure, I want a challenge and make this house feel like my own. The main reason is the location of it.

Outside of the window, there is a large meadow with beautiful rose bushes along with large oak trees older than this house, and that says something about the house since those trunks are very large, and the house looks like it could have been built in the nineteenths century.

On top of it all, the house was built on a hill so I have the most beautiful view of the city. The view just outweighs the poor condition of the house, don't get me wrong, when I'm done with it, it will be gorgeous. After cleaning the house and decontamination, I will finally be able to really start working in it.

"But it is so far away from the city, your neighbors are so far away. What if a group of rouge male comes and robs you?" My mother asks, putting her small hands on my shoulders. "I'm just very worried about you."

My eyes darken and my muscles tense.

Men. Those disgusting human being.

For many centuries ago, Mother Nature was dying. Oil killed our waters and carbon dioxide thinned the ozonosphere and we thought we were doomed. The male leaders over the world never cared about Mother Nature, they only cared what would benefit themselves and their wallets.

A miracle happened, our strongest females world around grouped and challenged the male race. They managed to take them down and took the lead of the world and started to heal Mother Nature. This group, is called Spartoi and even today, they are honored as the heroes who saved all of us and every year at July 19th, which also is called The Day of Freedom, we gather and celebrate our Mother's healing and throw a large party.

Everyone was happy, well, almost. The males after Spartoi's victory was throw into the shadows due to their selfishness and lack for empathy. Men's only reason for existing is for reproduction of the human race and slavery. Large slave warehouses grew for women to buy to take care of their chores or the simple act of making a baby with. Males became women's personal property to do as they pleased with. Those men who couldn't sell themselves into the slave warehouses, they litter the streets as either prostitutes or beggars. Women had soft hearts and there were those handful of them who actually gave them a piece of bread. If a woman would give them money, they wouldn't be able to buy anything due to their social ranking. The shop owners would accuse them of pickpocketing and not sell anything to them.

The worst kind of all males is those who join rouge groups, those who fight for equality between the races and steals from the women and gives to the men littering the streets. They are the worst toxic there is. The world is a good place, Mother Nature is healthy and more alive than she has ever been. There hasn't been a single war since Spartoi took from the men.

The world is at its peak. It won't ever be any better than it is right now.

"Don't worry, mama." I turn toward her and grab her hands. "You didn't pay for those self-defense classes just to have me sitting around and doing nothing. I got a few tricks up my sleeves."

My mother has always been a very worried person. Before I was born, my mother's first child died due to pre-mature birth, so when she had me, born pre-mature with two months, she became very overprotective of me. She did everything she could in order to keep me safe and healthy by making me take self-defense classes, ate healthy foods and never gave me any sweets.

"You won't be able to protect yourself if five men break into your home." My mother squeezes my hands and her eyes sparkle with worry. "Can't you sell this house and move back inside of the city? I could keep track on you better and―"

"Mama." I interrupt her. "This is the house I want to live in and you know the tradition. Daughters move out at the age of twenty. You wouldn't want to break the traditions?"

My mother has always been a sucker for traditions. Every year when it is The Day of Freedom she always goes all out, throwing this huge party and inviting all of our friends, heck, she even invites people we don't know.

It was a dirty trick to use it against her, but she needs to be able to let me go.

She grimaces and pulls her hands out of mine. "I know, love, I know. But if you want to live in this house, then I want you to get a bodyguard slave ―"

"What!" My eyes widen and I take a step backwards. "Are you crazy? A male slave? I would rather live alone than have those disgusting piece of trash living under my roof!"

"Sweety, please calm down―" Her hands find my shoulders, but I quickly slap them away.

"No! I'm not going to have a man in my house!" I storm out of the house and slam the door opens so violently the glass window cracks.

"Maka!" She quickly follows after me and gently closes the door behind her, locking it. "Don't disrespect your mother!" She catches up with me, pulling up her skirt so she can run easier, even though it proves difficult with the low heels she is wearing. She wouldn't have worn those shoes if she knew I had bought a house on a hill.

"I don't want to hear it!" I yell.

It isn't like me to disrespect my mother, it's just, men are so disgusting trash. Never do I want to be around any of those insects. They are just a nuisance which need to be eliminated, the problem with that plan is if they disappear, and so do we. Sometimes I dislike Mother Nature for making it only possible to reproduce with a women and a male!

"Listen dear!" My mother catches up to me. "You don't even have to provide a shelter for him. You can have him chained to the porch and give him food from a bowl like a dog if that will please you. I refuse to have you living here without any sort of protection."

I sigh loudly and run my hand down my face.

I do love my mother, very, very much. She is loving and a very caring woman. She is the one who knows me the best, but this time, I wonder if she truly knows me.

"Mama, I don't want a man. That is final." I get inside of my car and slams the door shut. My mother quickly dives inside of the passenger seat and closes the door.

"Darling, you know when you turn twenty-one, it will be time for you to get a man to impregnate yourself with. That is the tradition. You could chose a male now and feel more comfortable with him to then get a child with the slave."

I don't like her suggestion. I hate it. I hate that part of the traditions, the part when a woman turns twenty-one, she is expected to get a male slave to fertilize herself with. Some girls get their slaves when they are young, to grow up with them and use the boy as their own personal slave. My mother never had the money to buy and race a child slave since that would require more to get the slave to grow up healthy, to wait and then buy a full grown male slave always is a good idea. You never know if the slave will be capable of impregnate women.

"You wouldn't want to break the traditions, would you?" My mother softly asks.

I sigh loudly, reviving the engine to then drive away from my house.

She won this argument, my mother knows that.

We arrive back home at our home and walk inside. My mother immediately walks inside of the kitchen and grabs the catalogue from the shelf and starts searching for the number of the slave seller a town away. "Don't worry, honey. Whatever slave you want, I will buy him for you."

I don't protest. I take a seat in front of her, watching her flip through the pages to find the number of the seller. She gives off a pleased noise. She grips her phone and punches the number into her phone and calls it.

The call is very short. Kami gives her name and mine, informing the seller of my supposed "interest" in buying a slave. Then she says that I will arrive there in two days.

Great. She planned a trip without my permission.

"Tomorrow morning you will head to the warehouse and get yourself a good slave. Don't worry about the price, I don't care about it. Consider it your birthday gift." My mother smiles wide. "This is so exciting."

Exciting?

"Huh?"

Wait. Tears are pouring up in her eyes. "You are growing up so fast." She quickly wipes the tears away with her index finger. "Now you are moving out, you are going to have a slave and a little more than a year, you will turn twenty-one and get a baby of your own. It feels like it was yesterday I gave birth to you."

"Mama." The chair screech and I walk around the table, embracing her gently. "That doesn't mean I will disappear. Just because I'm moving out doesn't mean I will abandon you. I'm still going to visit you."

My mother sniffles, her fragile arms wrap around me as well. "I know. I'm just having a mother moment." I feel my shoulder grow wet.

We stay in each other's embrace, me comforting my mother while she cried.

The next day came. I packed a set of clothes and some toiletries since I would most likely stay in the town for a few days. Buying a slave does take some time, but it is the choosing part that takes the longest. I can't just point at a slave and buy him. There will be background checks I will have to go through, medical records, family tree and then run a physical test to see who is physically the strongest.

My mother and I walk out of our beautiful large house. I head to the car and open the backseat door and throw my bag inside, closing it.

"Make sure to choose a good bodyguard slave." My mother says, putting her hands on my shoulders.

"I will."

Her eyes wander down to my necklace around my neck. "You are still wearing it." She whispers softly.

The necklace is a gift from my mother when I was eight years old. It is a silver locket shaped as a heart with feathers and flames engraved on it. Inside of it is a picture of my mother holding me when I was first released from the ICU. I was such a small child she could hold me in both of her hands.

"Of course I do." Ever since I got it, I have never taken it off. Not even for a day or when I go to bed or took a shower, I never take it off. "It is very precious to me."

My mother smiles and cups her hands around the locket. "Keep it safe."

I put my hands over hers and look into her equal green eyes. "I will."

We part and I get inside of the car, reviving the engine. My mother waves goodbye and I was officially on the road to Death Vegas, the largest slave warehouse in the state of Nevada.

On my way out of the city, I see happily in love couples walk down the road, they smiling toward each other. I know my mother wants me to go to social gatherings to find myself a girlfriend, but right now, I'm not looking for a relationship and I have made it clear for her. I want to settle down in my house first before I start searching for love.

But love isn't always good.

I pass the square where currently an illegal couple kneels with their heads and hands trapped in the guillotine. The blades fall down at the same moment, beheading them. Their heads roll down from the podium and their blood make a river.

Love between a man and a woman is absolutely forbidden. They will receive the death penalty and be publically executed. The disgusting part about it, is that they walk up on the podium holding hands. It is absolutely revolting for them to disrespect our society by mocking the system by holding hands. Every single couple that has gone up on that podium, they got what they deserved.

As I drive out of the city, men try to get me to stop the car. They scream loudly and beg for bread or water. Some of the men even try to get my attention by dressing in stolen dresses and skirts, trying to pretend being a woman in order to get my attention.

Our queen should just shoot them. They are just insects.

The drive is long to get to Death Vegas, and it is very lonely. Since Death City is surrounded by a desert and the cities are far apart from each other, not many people drive on this certain road.

I'm lucky I brought with me some sandwiches since there are no restaurants, hotels, malls or anything on the way to Death Vegas. I take a stop by the side of the road to eat them and drink a bottle of water. Then I'm driving again and the night slowly falls and I put on my lights. I'm lucky, Death Vegas is only an hour away.

I keep driving peacefully. I gasp loudly when the tires explode loudly and the car screeches piercingly. Quickly I lose control of the vehicle and it goes flying off the road. The car violently jumps around as it goes down the slope before the car crashes into a tree. My face slams into the airbag before my body slumps over the steering wheel, blood trickle down from my temple and my skin burns. It must be from the airbag.

A holler pierces through the air. "Collect the spike! Leave no evidence behind." Rough, deep voice. That can only mean one thing.

Males.

I'm in big trouble.

I need to get away from here ASAP!

Groaning in pain, I lift my heavy head from the wheel and unbuckle the seatbelt. The car door creaks loudly as I stumble out of the car. I clutch my head, leaning against the car. My head is spinning. This will definitely slow me down.

There are no trees, bushes or anything else to hide from the men. I need to use the darkness in order to get away from them.

I don't even get a chance to go anywhere. The sound of sand moving catches my attention and the next moment I know arms wrap around my shoulders. Large muscular arms. Male arms.

"Tie her up." The same rough voice says, moving closer to me.

"No!" I struggle in my captor's arms. "Let me go!" I fling my arms wildly, trying to get a direct hit at him. I stomp on his foot and he buckles, releasing me. Quickly I flip around and I'm met with large bright red eyes that light up in the dark.

I swing my fist at him. He catches it with his large hand and locks it behind my back.

When I get back home, I will ask my money back for the self-defense classes. The things I learned are shit if I can't even get away from him.

"Still feisty as ever I see." The man with the red eyes whisper into my ear. Cold metal makes my wrists shivers. There is a series of clicks and the metal evolves both of my wrists. He just handcuffed me. His hand goes around to my throat and grips my necklace, breaking the lock with one powerful tug.

Not my beautiful locket!

"Kilik, you hide the car. Soul, you and I return to The Nest." The voice I heard before walks up to me with a cloth in his hands, the moon illuminating his blue hair. He raises his hand with the cloth, I dive and bite down on his thumb.

"Ah!" he hollers, pulling away and looks at his hand.

I'm pleased when I taste copper in my mouth.

He growls and wipes his blood on his glove. "Charming. She is an aggressive one." The man with the blue hair quickly forces the cloth in my mouth before he ties it behind my neck.

I shriek when the man kneels down in front of me, catching my leg and ties my ankles together. The man behind me hoists me up on his shoulder and carries me like a sack of potatoes. He carries me toward a desert jeep and lied me on the floor so I won't be able to see through the windows.

So I can't see where they will take me.

The man with the red eyes gets inside of the car and closes the door behind him. The man with blue hair revives the engine and takes off. The ride is very bumpy and with my already injured head and already spinning vision. This proves to be the challenge of my life. My head bumps into the floor as the jeep drives over the sand. I groan in pain as the cloth violently rips at the corners of my mouth.

"Black*Star." The man with the red eyes leans toward the driver. "Slow down. She crashed into a tree, I don't think she needs more trauma when it comes to cars."

Black*Star. So that is the name. I will remember that so I can give him away to the police.

Black*Star sighs loudly. "Fine, but I won't promise anything." He does slow down and the ride proves to be less bumpy, that is until there is a large unexpected hill of sand and my head slams into the floor.

"Shit." The man with the red eyes curses and unbuckles his seatbelt. He kneels down and holds up my head, getting my blood all over his hands. "Maka's head is bleeding."

How does he know my name?

Black*Star curses and quickly he fish up a phone from his pocket and tosses it backwards, it lands on the seat beside the man. "Call Tsubaki and ask her to prepare our medical supplies."

Everything is spinning. My stomach flips and I end up puking all over the floor. Nice. Lying in my own puddle of vomit, although, I don't really care. My head hurts, everything is spinning and I close my eyes. Slowly unconsciousness keeps up on me and I find myself gone from my captor's jeep.

Some trip this proved to be.

…

Consciousness is coming back to me. Something soft caresses my arms and disappointment sinks all the hopes I had. I'm still in handcuffs, but now at least my arms aren't behind my back. The cloth that gagged me is also gone.

My eyes slowly flutters open and I find myself in a hammock inside of a tent. Something is wrapped tightly around my head. I feel the unknown item around my head and it proves to be bandage. The blood that coated my right side of my face is completely gone and the puke that stuck in my hair is also gone. Wasn't they supposed to throw me in a prison where they would rape me one by one? What motive do they have to treat me?

Never mind that, this is my chance at escaping.

Carefully not to fall face down in the ground, I silently get off the hammock. I tiptoe to the entrance and move aside the cloth, letting out a loud shriek when I see red eyes staring me down and a mop of bright white hair.

"Planning to sneak out, I see." The man flashes rows of sharp teeth. "I see you haven't changed that much after all of these years, Maka."

I stumble backwards and almost fall flat on my behind. She smirks while he walks inside of the tent. "You stay away from me."

Okay. What did I learn in self-defense? Let him come to me, block and counter his attack my kicking him in the balls. Yes, that would give me an opportunity to get pass him and escape. What will I do then when I get pass him? The Black*Star male said another name that wasn't this man, this means there will be more people here. It will be tough escaping, but I am very fast. Hopefully I will be able to outrun them, or be able to steal their jeep.

Their jeep. That is my only chance. I'm somewhere in a desert with no water or food. That jeep is my only ticket out of here.

"No, listen Maka, I know this must be scary for you, but you can trust me." The man says, not making any moments toward me. "My name is Soul, Soul Eater, but you knew me by my real name, Soul Evans."

Soul Evans? I don't know any Soul. I have never known any men except for my mother's slave, the one she got me with and he proved to be the largest scum on the earth.

"I know you don't remember me." He stays still with his hands in his pockets. "And you won't believe me. That much I know about you. You were always so stubborn. Never acknowledging anything if proof wasn't thrust in your face." He fishes up an object from his pocket.

My eyes widen. That is my locket.

"Haven't you ever thought how weird it was, that you grew so attached to it so quickly." Soul says.

"Give me my locket." I hold out my hands toward Soul. I have to admit. I am scared. Never have I come to face a man that sees himself as my equal or even, superior. They all fell in front of my knees to kiss my feet. Who does this person think he is?

Soul chuckles and tosses it to me and I catch it clumsily. "You should look behind the picture. You will find something interesting there."

I hate the fact that I want to take a look behind the picture, but doing so would follow a man's order. Never would I surrender to one of those bugs without a fight. I snort loudly and look away from the man. "No, I refuse."

Soul walks up to me and he grabs the locket out of my hands. "Then allow me to show you."

My mouth opens and closes rapidly. He is so… ignorant. He is a man! He shouldn't be acting like this in front of a woman! He is supposed to be on his knees offering me a way out of this hellhole! Males aren't supposed to do something like this to begin with!

He flickers the locket open and works the picture out of it. He holds out the locket toward me and I gasp loudly. Just behind a picture, my mother had hid machinery. Small printed circuit boards along with a lamp hide inside of my locket. What are those things doing there? My mother never said anything about secret gears inside of it or it having special abilities. Why did she keep this from me?

"It is a tracking device. As soon as we retrieved you from the car, I disabled the tracker so no one can follow us." He then puts the picture of me and my mother back inside of the locket. "You can try to get it to work as much as you want, it won't. I removed a PCB for safety reasons."

You equality fucker.

I growl and stomp on his foot.

Here is my chance!

I knee him right in his crutch and he howls in pain like a wolf would howl at the moon. Gripping my locket tightly, I run pass Soul and out of the cloth door. I didn't expect this.

I'm not in a desert anymore. I'm surrounded with trees, bushes and three other tents. Two guys and a female sits by a bonfire with their eyes set on me.

I better start running, now.

I take off running away from the tents and the people by the bonfire, although, I don't manage to get far when a body slams into me.

"YAHOOO!" A voice yells loudly. Black*Star's? "Taste that!" He grabs the back of my head and shows it down into the earth, making me taste the dirt. "No one can run away from the almighty Black*Star!" Yup. It is Black*Star. The driver and the one I bit.

Who the heck does he think he is shoving a woman's head in the dirt? He will be losing his dick and be doomed to wander the streets uselessly when the government hears about this!

"Black*Star!" Soul hollers. "She is still injured! Release her head!"

I thought I was going to suffocate. Black*Star releases my head with a "my bad" and get off of me. He grabs a hold of my arm and hoists me up on my feet. "By the way, was that you who screamed like a little boy?"

Soul is clutching his crutch. He must still be hurting from the kick I delivered. Good.

He rolls his eyes and takes his hand away. "She does know how to nail a good kick."

Black*Star bursts out laughing while he holds my bicep tightly. I squirm in his grip in hope of escaping. "Man, and you chose her? It was a drag getting her and now you are going to break a Reborn? Do you even know if it is possible?"

Reborn? What is he talking about? What is that? My mother has never said anything about something called Reborn before. I haven't ever heard anyone talk about Reborn before. Is this some kind of secret code only filthy men understand? My queen must know about this.

Soul sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "I have no clue." His hand the grips my other bicep. "All I know is that I have to try. You got your girl and now I want mine."

What?! His girl?!

"Hold on! I'm no one's girl!" I exclaim loudly as Black*Star hands me to Soul. "I am a respectable female! I am no one's property! Especially not a male's!"

Both the men look blinks in confusion before they burst out laughing.

What. The. Heck? Why are they laughing!

"Oh man! Did you hear that?" Black*Star says through his laughter.

Soul nods while he laughs. "Oh Maka, look around. Does it look like you are at your precious city with your mother? No, now you are playing by our rules and here, there is no social system. Everyone are equals." His laughter wears off and he squeezes my arm. "And since we are equals here, you deserve to know the truth."

"We will never be equals." I glare at Soul, trying to escape his grip. "I will never treat you insects as my equal, you equality fuckers!"

His grip around my bicep tightens, he pulls me closer to him, wrapping his arm around my waist. "You say that now, but hopefully I will be able to change your mind."

My stomach flips just like it did yesterday. I feel the need to puke by just being this close to such an obnoxious man who thinks he has the right to touch me like this. This man has some guts to put his hands on a woman like this. Maybe he just earned himself a nice kick to his balls?

I smirk and swing my leg toward his crutch, but Soul sees through me and quickly moves aside. "It won't work again sweetheart." Soul tugs at my arm. "You need to listen to me and I bet you are hungry."

Reluctantly I follow Soul to the bonfire where the woman and the guy sit beside each other. "Can we get a moment by ourselves?" Soul asks.

The woman nods and gets up from the wooden log they use as a bench. "Of course. Good luck." Her long black ponytail sways as she walks back into a tent. The other male follows her but walks inside of a different tent.

What is a woman doing in this group of rouge males? Is she seriously supporting their equality ideology? She betrayed us, she betrayed her fellow sisters. How could she choose their side over ours? Men have always been toxic to Mother Nature and that hasn't changed. I need to get her name so when I get out of here, I can report her for treason.

Soul unlocks one handcuff and it turns worse. He handcuffs me to himself. He reaches over to the large bowl hanging over the fire and grabs a bowl. He fills it with a plain looking soup. It doesn't look very appealing to me. He hands me the bowl along with a spoon. "Eat up. It may not look very good, but it isn't that bad."

I don't want to think about it, but I can't deny it. Soul is very kind. It may not have been him who treated me, but none of them has even tried to hurt me when I have hurt him. I can't understand what is going on.

I need to stand my ground and order him to answer me. I have always been hungry for knowledge and it hasn't changed. "Why are you doing all of this? If you are a group of rouge males, what is your motive for capturing me?" I let the bowl rest on my lap. The soup could be poisoned, but my stomach is growling loudly, I really need some food in my stomach. My hunger outweighs my distrust for these people.

"Didn't I make it clear already? I guess I can repeat it." He says, watching me take a sip of the soup. It tastes mostly of milk and carrots, no form of venom. "We knew each other before and I want to see if I can break the Reborn and see if you will remember me because back then, we were really close."

Close? Me and a guy? That can't be true.

"What is this Reborn you keep talking about?" I grip the wooden spoon in my hand with the locket in my hand. The soup isn't that bad. I eat the soup greedily, I didn't even know I was this hungry. I was already hungry when the car crashed into the tree, so I'm lucky they are feeding me.

Soul puts his hand over mine. "Can I borrow the locket then? I need it to explain it."

I blink in confusion, but reluctantly I give him the locket.

"Have you heard about the phoenix phenomenal?" He asks as he caresses the surface of the heart.

"I don't think so."

Soul nods understandingly. "A phoenix is a mythical creature. It is a hawk with feathers looking like flames and when it sheds its feathers, it burns up and turns to ashes. That is the most beautiful about the bird is that they rise from the ashes and become even more beautiful and stronger than before."

"What does this have to do with Reborn and my locket?" I ask, already eaten half the soup. It may not be warm soup, but it is so delicious and simple.

"What symbols are on your locket?" He asks me, holding up the locket in front of me.

I look at my locket, the one I had admired so much from when I was just a little girl. The flames and feathers dances on the locket. "Feathers and flames." I answer.

"It is the symbols of the phoenix. This is the mark of the Reborn project the government and the queen is working on to make sure women will always hate men and keep them separated." Soul opens my hand and puts the locket in it, wrapping my hand around it. "You Maka, is one of the many who has been used for the project Reborn, actually, you were their first test subject."

My heart speeds up. Test subject? Project Reborn? Project to keep women and men away from each other?

No. This can't be true.

"You are lying." My breath hitches, increasing in speed. "That can't be true. My mother would never give me away to be a test subject." My throat tightens and I have a hard time breathing properly. "This can't be true. There is no way."

"It is." Soul says. "It is true. Your mother went to the queen and begged her to "save" you since you were getting too close to me and she answered her prayers. She established the project and they manipulated young girls' and young women's memories and made them loath the male race. They are forcing the women to forget about their past and make them reborn into women of hatred."

My breath quickens and dark spots clutter my vision. "Stop! You are lying!" The bowl of half-eaten soup spills on the ground and I stand up, clutching my head, his hand yank along mine.

"Maka." His hand lies on mine on my head due to the handcuffs.

My breath quickens and the darkness slowly embraces me. "Liar… stupid… lying… m―" My legs cave in and I'm gone before I even hit the ground.

…

I gasp loudly and cough. I didn't wake up inside of the tent I did that same day, not even on the ground by the bonfire. I don't even seem to be normal. My clip behind my head I usually wore is replaced with pigtails I used to wear back in the days and a pink paper dress, like, one of those dresses the doctor gives you to wear during a physical checkup.

I squirm in the dental seat I find myself lying on, the problem is I can't move. My wrists and ankles are strapped to the chair.

A bright light lit up and I narrow my eyes.

"Head gear." A very feminine voice says with an edge of professional. I can't see the faces of them, but I can see the darker outlines of the two women.

The dark figure walks behind the chair and puts the head gear onto my head.

"Please." I whine with a very childish voice. My mouth moved on its own. I didn't say it, my body just moved on its own. I sniffle loudly and tears run down my face. "You are scaring me."

Roughly the woman put on the helmet on my head and buckles it under my chin. "Relax, I'm a doctor and a female. You can trust your sisters, dear Maka."

"Okay." I say reluctantly.

Something is going on. Something really bad. I don't like this at all.

"Turn it on." The female "doctor" says and that is when it hits me. Waves of waves of pure pain shake me to the very core. A loud series of loud pitch screams of my young body tears my vocal cord. My head aches with intense pain as I feel how my memory alters. New memories pop into my head, weird memories that feels just… out of place before a new one pops up. The feeling of a fluttery feeling inside of my chest and the feeling of missing someone important slowly ebbs away from my small little body.

"Maka!"

I gasp loudly and I find the agony disappearing and is replaces with a new one, this time, the pain isn't made with the help of a machine on my head, it is because I accidentally slam my forehead into Soul's.

I breathe heavily, gently holds my head with the one that isn't cuffed to Soul's. "What was that?"

"What happened?" Soul asks while he rubs his sore forehead. "What did you see? You were caught in some kind of trauma."

"I don't know." Tears pour up in my eyes. Why am I feeling so… comforted? "I was strapped to a chair inside of a dark room. A woman put a sort of helmet on my head and then there was so much pain. I saw pictures in my mind, bad pictures, familiar pictures I remember."

Soul nods and his cuffed hand gently put over mine. "That sounds a lot like the time when you were manipulated and Reborn. Maybe the trauma triggered something inside of your mind to remember that time."

It was real. What Soul told me was very much real. I remember how the feeling ebbed away and I was like a zombie afterwards. It was when I walked outside of the room to meet my mother, the "doctor" then gave her the necklace for me to wear. My mother had looked at me with― I'm feeling sick ― with joy and relief.

How could my mother do this to me? I'm her only child.

"You said I was getting to close to you." I sniffle, not removing his hand from mine. "What were you to me?"

Soul smiles gently and he squeezes my hand. "When you were six years old, your mother took you to the warehouse in Death Vegas to get a slave. She wanted you to have your personal servant and bodyguard. As soon as you walked inside of the cell blocks, your eyes caught mine and you recklessly ran up to my cell, shaking the bars with your tiny hands, begging your mother to get me out of the cage." Carefully, Soul moves closer to me so our shoulders are bumping together. "You were so caring and sympathize with the other boys locked inside of the small cells, you always were so caring and that is how you treated me. You always wanted to play together with me, do my chores with me and you know what. We grew so close to each other the whole society view on us was totally twisted."

Could I have really been that kind of person? That caring and not giving any thought of what my mother taught me about males. Did I really treat Soul with such passion and equality?

I guess I'm an equality fucker as well.

Tears trickle down my cheeks and immediately I wipe away the tears. "Is it okay if I go to bed?" Look at who I have turned into. When I woke up inside of that tent, I fought Soul and stomped on him, now, I'm asking him for permission to go to bed. How ridiculous have I turned into?

Soul nods and helps me up on my feet. "Sure. I will take you to your bed." He doesn't let go of my hand and quite frankly, I don't care. He could be dragging me through the sticks and dirty and I wouldn't give a shit. My head is spinning with so many thoughts and these re-found memories. How could my mother lie to me for so many years? How could she get rid of Soul like that?

My whole life, I have been living a lie.

Soul shows me to my hammock inside of a different tent. "You will be living with the other girl. Her name is Tsubaki. It is her who patches up your wounds." Soul fishes up a key from his pocket to unlock the handcuff from his hand. "Unfortunately, I will have to cuff you to your hammock." He guides the handcuff to an iron ring in the white cloth of the hammock and cuffs it. "If you need something, just give a yell and I will come."

His hand lingers on mine before he turns on his heel and leaves the tent.

I can't sleep. My thoughts scare sleep away and I just end up lying there, staring up at the white cloth of the ceiling of the tent.

For twelve years. Twelve whole years I have been a lie due to the Reborn. My true thoughts and childhood were locked away and I had to grow up from the memories and the thoughts the queen and the scientists wanted me to turn out.

I can feel myself changing just as the minutes pass by. I realize more and more I'm not a person who hates others. I'm the kind of person that Soul describes, a caring woman who sympathizes with the men. I feel more sympathy for Soul, Black*Star and every single one of the men in this world living beneath the system.

Who would I have been if I never went through the Reborn project? Would Soul have still been in my life and what would we have been?

Somewhere in my storm of thoughts, I didn't notice the fabric for a door push aside and the woman with black hair in a ponytail walks inside. "Can't you sleep?" She asks carefully.

"Oh," I turn toward the young woman. She looks to be around my age. "Yeah."

She nods understandingly, walking up to her hammock right beside mine. "Is it hard to adapt to this new life?"

"Yeah." I watch Tsubaki take off her shoes before she climbs on her hammock expertly. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, ask away." She pulls the blanket over her body, facing me.

"Why are you here? Why are you with a group of rouge men?"

She giggles and her cheeks heat up. "You can say, I made a very dangerous decision with the one I love. I could no longer keep a straight face and pretend like I was not in love with Black*Star so we both made a conscious decision to run away so we could be together."

My eyes widen. She ran away with a male because of love. It is a miracle she is still alive. The army catches all of the illegal couples. Some might be harder to catch, but they always end up catching them in the end.

"How are you still alive?" I wasn't going to ask, but the question just left my lips before I could stop them.

"It is a good question." Tsubaki says. "Black*Star helped me fake my own death, then I colored my hair and changed my name." Tsubaki smiles proudly. "No one has ever tried to come after me and no one questions my identity."

So that is how she cheated the system. That is a clever way indeed. Why would people look for a dead person? The tricky part about her plan was to actually give them a corpse that looked like her and make a new identity. There are a lot of things that could go wrong with it even at today's time. The government could pick up on her and question where she lives and her lack of job and her role in the community.

She is playing a very dangerous game.

"Was it worth it?" I ask, fisting my hands underneath the pillow.

"Yes." Tsubaki says with no hesitation or a twinkle of regret in her eyes. "It was my decision and it is one of the best ones I have ever made. I know I could die today or tomorrow because of the government finding us, but I won't ever regret it because living with Black*Star with the chance of the government killing us is easier than living up to the society's standards and lying to myself."

The talk was over. Tsubaki fell asleep and I found myself awake all alone with even more questions swirling inside of my head.

Now I had met one woman who would rather throw away a safe life for a very danger-filled one, but a life with the one she loves. Is love truly that powerful that you would rather live in fear than being without that special someone? Never have I ever felt so attached to a person I would do something like that for. Not even my mother.

Love must be a really powerful emotion, this makes me even more confused. I thought that I loved my mother, but obviously I don't love her that much since I wouldn't do something like that for her. Am I a bad daughter for feeling so?

I shouldn't feel bad, she gave me away from research. They hurt me and changed me to the worst. They took away my caring nature and replaced it with loath. I can't possibly forgive my mother for putting me through those circumstances, so I guess I don't need to feel bad for not liking her anymore. I would never have taken her to such a place if she found someone she got too attached to in the mind of the society. If she got too attached to "the wrong" specie.

"Maka." My eyes snap open and I find Soul gently shaking my shoulder. His red eyes are so soft. "It's breakfast." Soul unlocks the cuffs and surprisingly, he takes the handcuffs away. "I left some proper shoes and clothes for you. We are all going to head to the lake to get some fuel for the car and you are going to come with us." Soul jabs his thumb toward the clothes that lie neatly folded on Tsubaki's bed with the shoes on the ground in front of it. "I will wait for you by the bonfire. Don't do anything stupid." He left the tent.

I did as Soul told me, I put on the combat boots with the white belts and― Soul must have known about my love for skirts since he gives me a blue skirt with black leggings to finish it off with a white blouse. Skirts have always been my favorite piece in my wardrobe.

After getting dressed, I leave the tent and I find Soul, Black*Star and Tsubaki sitting by the bonfire with two other guys. One of the guys has dark skin and braids while the others has dark hair in a messy ponytail with strange glasses covering his face.

The strange men turn their eyes toward me.

"Guys," Soul stands up from the log. "I want you to meet Maka, Maka, these are Kilik and Harvar."

I walk up beside Soul and the male with the braids waves at me. "I'm Kilik. So you are the one Soul has been talking all about."

Did Soul talk about me?

"Anyway." Soul says and grabs my hand, gently pulling me down to take a seat on the log. "Let's just eat our breakfast and head out."

"Yeah!" Black*Star exclaims. "Harvar, you will stay at the camp."

"Yeah, whatever." Harvar mutters as he looks down at his porridge. I'm getting the feel that he doesn't like to express himself that much or he was simply bored generally.

Soul poured up a bowl of porridge to me. I must say, it isn't delicious. It isn't like the porridge my mother could serve me. This porridge seems to be made of leaves or moss, something that comes from the woods to then be mixed with milk. How could they all finish eating this disgusting food?

They all chat away about the weather conditions, the path we would take along with how many dunks of water we would bring with us to the jeep. Before I knew it, we were all on the way to this lake with dunks tied to our backs. Black*Star took the lead with Tsubaki right beside him. Kilik walks right behind them while Soul stays right beside me at the back.

"Something seems to bother you." Soul says. His hand is so close to mine I can feel the heat from it, calling me to touch it.

"It's just…" Why am I even considering telling him this? I feel so torn between these two personas inside of me, the one who still very much despises men and then the one who is curious about my past and what Soul meant to me. I know I'm feeling something toward him. It feels almost like a distant memory you can never truly grasp. Soul said we got separated since we were so close to each other and my mother didn't like it, this means those feelings I held for him is coming back with the memories.

"It's just… what?" Soul repeats.

I sigh loudly as the branches from the bush rip at my boots. "I'm just confused. I have so many unanswered questions, and now I don't know who I really am." It does feel good to talk to Soul. I can't deny it.

His fingers touch mine and tenderly he takes my hand in his. It feels nice being linked to him in some way. I don't understand why. "All your answers will be given in due time and you will find out who you really are, but you will have to do that on your own. It is only you who can decide who you are."

The corner of my mouth twitch and I find a smile creeping up on me. "But why won't you give me the answers?"

"I would love to give you them." Soul squeezes my hand as he moves a branch away for me. "But the thing is, I don't know if it is the right thing to do. I want you to remember, but I want you to remember with your own memories, not draw some mental picture of how things were with the help of my words." Soul suddenly stops and forces me to stop as well.

Black*Star and Kilik don't seem to notice that we stop, they keep walking up the hill without a care to see if we are behind them. "Hey, they are w―"

"Don't worry about them." Soul moves closer to me and his other hand finds mine, giving both of my hand an affectionate squeeze. "I'm positive with my help you will get your memories back. It will just take some time to manage to trigger a memory."

"Then trigger one." My hands slip from Soul's and I take a step backwards, getting Soul out of my private sphere. "I can't keep being in this state between two personalities. I order you as a female in our society to get my memory back. Trigger something now."

"It isn't that easy." Soul says and takes a step toward me. "We did a lot together, it is just hard to pick one and try to trigger that memory. I promise you I'm trying to trigger something but it hasn't helped. I'm working my butt off trying to get you to remember me." Soul catches my hand again, his gaze pierces my eyes. "For an example Rescuer."

I blink in confusion. Rescuer. What is that? What connection does this have with our past? Did I rescue Soul? Did he rescue me? He did tell me he was my bodyguard, so did he save me? I do have the odds with me, but the question is if I hit the nail on the head.

"No, flash." Soul whispers. "See, it isn't easy to get you to remember, and that was a very strong memory." He sighs loudly and tugs at my hand. "Come on, we are almost at the lake and I bet Black*Star and the others are waiting for us."

I didn't object. We walked up the hill in peace, our hands still entwined and when we came to the top, I gasp loudly. There is a small lake on a mountain shelf with trees beautifully surrounding it. The grass is tall and beautiful flowers in every color are scattered everywhere. Black*Star is already swimming around in the lake. Kilik hollers loudly and jumps into the lake. Tsubaki stands on the edge of the lake with her feet in the water, holding towels in her hands. She giggles as she watches Black*Star swim around and boasting about himself being "the best swimmer there is."

"Why are they swimming? Weren't we just supposed to get the water and return?"

Soul chuckles, standing beside me. "Nah, we don't come here that often so when we do, we like to clean ourselves before we return. With this life, we don't get many opportunities to take bathes."

"So, do you want to join them?" I take a seat on the ground among the flowers. "I won't mind if you do."

Soul shakes his head. "Nah, I took a bath a few days ago. I'm good." Soul takes a seat on the ground beside me. "Besides, I would rather keep you company. Black*Star and Kilik seem like they're going to drown each other."

Oh yes it seems so. Black*Star and Kilik seem to have started a wrestling contest in the water. Tsubaki watches them closely with her hand covering her mouth as they tumble around in the water.

Soul's eyes sink down to the grass and the flowers all around us. His hand caresses a light pink flower's delicate petals before he puckers it from the ground. He then picks another flower from the ground, this time, a pastel yellow flower.

"What are you doing?" I ask, watching him take another flower with a different color before he skillfully starts braiding them together.

"You will see once it is finished." Soul says with a large smirk on his face. He takes more flowers from around us and keeps braiding all of the flowers together. The light flower petals of all kinds of pastel colors doesn't disturb the order, it blends together perfectly. He has done this before, he knows exactly what colors of flowers compliment the others. He doesn't hesitate in his choice of flowers and the way his fingers expertly braids all of the flowers together is astonishing.

"Done." Soul says as he lifts up the large circle of beautiful flowers. "It is a flower crown." He comes closer to me and puts it on my head. "It looks beautiful on you."

Flower crown.

"Soul―"

The lake and my surrounding quickly disappears.

My body shrinks like it did the last time and I find myself in a pink dress and my hair tied with ribbons. I'm a child again.

As before, I have no control over my body. I giggle as I run through the tall grass, it caresses my dress. My heart is beating fast in my small chest. "I will save you princess." I exclaim with my high pitched voice.

Save? Who am I saving?

I run up to a tree and my eyes lift, there on a branch sits Soul with a flower crown on his head. Is he the princess?

With all the might that is in my tiny body, I throw myself at the tree and start to climb up it. "I'm coming princess." I groan as I hoist myself up on each branch, climbing higher and higher toward Soul.

Soul flashes his sharp teeth, holding out his tiny hand toward me. I don't even hesitate, I take his hand and Soul hoists me up on the branch. To be two kids, we are very high up. "I saved you!" I exclaim and throw my arms around Soul. "I finally got my princess."

Soul is so… tiny… and innocent. He wears old pair of baggy pants and a dark blue shirt with rips and holes. My mother obviously didn't provide good clothes for him. Soul's white hair isn't as long as I know today, it is short messy haircut.

"You did." His voice is so light and innocent from the dark and rough voice he has today. We hug each other tightly before we climb down the tree. "Do you want to play Rescuer again?"

So this is what Rescuer is, it is a game.

I shake my head and land on the ground again. "Not if you don't want to." Our hands are pulling toward the others and our hands entwine midway.

I squeeze Soul's hand and he gently shakes his head. "I don't feel like playing it." Gently Soul pulls me down in the grass so we are surrounded with tall grass. "Can I make you a flower crown?"

I giggle excitedly as Soul's smile widens. "Please. Make one just as beautiful as yours."

Soul immediately dives into his work. He grabs flowers of light colors and mixes them together. His skills are very good, not as great as Soul's skills today, but they are still fantastic. He quickly makes a flower crown of the same pastel colors and puts it on my head. "Do you like it?"

I nod eagerly and grab Soul's hand again. "Yeah! Thank you! It is really beautiful."

With Soul's free hand, he gently cups my face, his eyes are so unbearably soft. "It really brings out y―"

― I gasp loudly and I find myself in Soul's arms. His fingers gently caress my jaw and smiles with relief. "What did you see?"

What was Soul going to say? His sentence was just suddenly cut off.

My heart skips a beat and shivers go through my spine. "You were a cute little boy." My hand run through Soul's long messy hair and another memory catches up with me. It was me who actually cut his hair. It was getting in his way and he asked me to cut it for him. So that short hair was my own creation. "I wouldn't do such a good job of becoming a barber, would I?"

Soul chuckles and he puts his hand over mine, giving it an affectionate squeeze. "Maybe not, but you did do a very good job at getting the hair out of my face."

I giggle and nuzzle into his chest. I have missed this. Hugging Soul and holding his hand. So this is why I always felt so drawn to him to constantly hold his hand and touch him, we always did it in the past.

His touch. It is hypnotizing. Never before have sparks fly just because of a single touch. The memories come back to me and they surely don't come alone, these feelings, these overwhelming and mighty feelings. It feels like if I keep remembering my past, I'm going to get crushed with all of these feelings, I'm going to drown in them and eventually die because of these large feelings I'm having.

"You know." Soul's hand caresses my hand and his thumb gently caresses my face. "The flower crown really brings out your eyes. Your beautiful green eyes―"

― I'm back again. In my backyard and the tall grass caress my legs and Soul's hand is on my cheek.

"It really brings out your eyes." Our faces close in. My little body slowly comes closer and closer to me.

"You know, the thing the heroine always does when she finds her princess." The words tumble out of my mouth and a large smile spreads on Soul's lips.

"You want it?" Soul asks skittishly.

I nod slowly. "Only if you do." A large blush creeps onto my face.

"I do." Soul's face comes closer to mine and he caresses it with his thumb. I pucker my lips and Soul does the same. Our lips touch and my heart tingles pleasantly. We pull away immediately and I giggle.

"That was―"

"― Cool. Really cool." Soul finishes my sentence with a large smile on his face.

"What in the world!" Our heads snap toward my mother marching toward us, her eyebrows narrowed and steam coming out of her ears. "Maka Albarn! Go to your room! Now!"

I may have been eight years and Soul ten, but we both knew we were both in big trouble. My mother never raised her voice often, and when she did, it was never to this degree. She is raging and we are her targets.

"No." I say shakily, my small body trembling badly. I take Soul's hand in mine and steps in front of him, but he quickly gets in front of me and squeezes my hand.

"Please, don't hurt Maka, she did nothing wrong." He squeaks out. His hand is trembling as well.

"You little male insect." My mother grits out. She grabs his ear roughly and violently jerks him away from me.

He cries out in pain and tries to pry away her hand from his ear. "I'm sorry." Tears trickle down his face. "I'm sorry, I promise I will behave."

"Soul!" I yell and go after my mother. "Please, let him go!" Tears run down my cheeks as I grip my mother's arm, trying to get her away from Soul. "Please mama!" I sob loudly.

She ignores me and slams the front door open. "You are never to return here ever again or I will personally have you killed!" She releases his ear and with all her might she kicks him in the back so he falls knees first on the ground outside of our home.

"No!" I cry out loudly and I go after Soul, but my mother cuts me off by slamming the door close and locking it, separating Soul and I. I violently bang my small fists on the door, sinking down on my knees crying for Soul. I kept screaming and begging for Soul, my mother roughly grabbed my pigtail and dragged me away from the front door crying loudly before she picked me up from the ground to lock me inside of my own room.

That was the last time I had seen Soul. Even up until the point where my mom took me to the clinic to have my memories modified, I cried and cried and cried for Soul to return to me. I begged my mother to return him to me. I stopped eating and punched my mother, wanting Soul to return. She never let me out of my room. I was stuck there, locked away.

Every memory comes back to me. Every piece of memory when Soul went and hide and I, as the heroine, searched for him and climbed up to his tower to save him. The memory when our eyes locked and I chose Soul within a heartbeat because of his eyes. He looked so sad and miserably inside of the cell with the other boys. I wanted him out of there so badly. He was such an amazing friend and person, I wouldn't want any bad to befall him. What did he even go through when my mother kicked him out?

Suddenly I'm suck out of the memories of my past and my eyes widen. I'm not by the lake anymore. I'm inside of my tent with Soul sitting beside me on a log. "How are you feeling? You were out for hours."

I break down. Just remembering his crushed face as the door slammed shut between us, it is heartbreaking. Tears trickle down my cheeks and Soul is quick to try to sooth me.

"Maka." Soul says gentle while he cups my cheeks, wiping my tears away.

"I remember everything." I say through my tears and sobs. "You were ripped away from me!" I exclaim and cry even heavier. My heart is aching with pain. "You must have gone through so many horrible things out on the street and―"

"Maka." Soul says again. "Don't worry about me and my past. I'm fine now. Tell me what is going through your mind. What are you feeling?"

I look into his eyes.

What am I feeling? I'm hurt, it feels like my tears will suffocate me and my heart is beating faster than a train, but underneath all of these different kinds of agony, I feel relief knowing that the sad little girl locked inside of her bedroom finally found the person she longed for. Well, we switched rules playing Rescuer. Now he was the heroine and I was the princess. He really did save me and I'm feeling so many kinds of feelings just having him here with me. My hands wander his chest because I can't stop touching him. My eyes don't want to blink in fear that he will disappear. I don't want to stop smelling him because I recognize this scent so much. This is really Soul's smell of his earthy and sweaty body.

I swallow deep as a tear wracks through my body.

I do want to feel his lips on me like that. I want to taste his lips and imprint him whole into my mind so no one can ever take away the memory of him.

It is illegal by law for me to feel this way toward a man.

My hands wander up his chest and I cup his face, slowly pulling his face closer to me. He doesn't object.

Screw the system. I want Soul and I'm not going to lose him again.

"You want to know what is on my mind." I sniffle. "I'm thinking how badly I want to kiss you."

"You don't have to think anymore." Soul chuckles and his hand snake around to my neck, gently pulling me closer. "Just enjoy it." His lips crash onto mine and it is not as innocent as when we were kids. Our lips move against each other and I cry out in joy. I haven't understood it to this day how much I had missed kissing Soul. That little innocent kiss, it had definitely triggered a carving for Soul and from looks of it, the carving is mutual. Our lips move frantically against each other's with enough force to leave bruises behind. He introduces his tongue to me and I eagerly greet him.

For the first time, I understand now why Tsubaki left her home in order to be with Black*Star. This feeling. This incredible feeling of want clouds my mind. My hands and lips communicate the desire for him what I can't even think of. My hands caress his broad shoulders, skinny waist and his bony chest.

Soul, Soul, Soul, oh Soul. How I want this moment to last forever.

We pull away and we are both out of breath, panting heavily. I'm fisting his shirt and his hand grip my shoulders. "Dear god how I have missed this." Soul climbs up in the hammock and lies beside me, pulling me close to him.

The tears that had stopped starts pouring down my cheeks again. "Me too." I sniffle and bury my head in his chest. "I'm so sorry." I squeeze him in my arms. "I'm so sorry for how all of this turned out. I should have been able to protect you from my mother but I failed you. You always protected me and took the blame for my dumb mistakes, and I wasn't able to protect you. I'm so sorry."

Soul gently caresses my hair, planting a kiss on my forehead. "You don't have to apologize. It is in the past. We are together now."

"I still want to know. What happened to you? How did you get here and how did you find me? I want to know about you this time." I sniffle against his chest, his orange shirt getting more and more soak with my tears.

"It will just make you crying even more."

"I don't care. I just want to know!" I yell into his chest and more tears trickle down my cheeks.

"Okay." Soul sighs. "Just so you know, I did try to return to you, but your mother chased me away with a kitchen knife in her hand. It was tough being a kid on the streets, people wanted to pick fights and as soon as I got a piece of food, it was stolen away from me before I could have finished it or even start eating it. To survive I had to steal from people and exchange them in black markets for food. The little I got barely kept me alive and that was when I met a boy named Wes." Soul slowly shakes his head. "He was an albino just like me so we became pretty close. I did consider him my brother at one point since we always worked together in order to get food."

He stops. Something must have happened or else this Wes person would have been here.

"What happened then?"

Soul inhales loudly and swallows even louder. "A gang of women attacked us. Wes protected me and they killed him. He bleed to death in front of me and the women were going to go after me, but that is when Kilik and Harvar found me. They managed to save me from them by getting me and Wes away from them, but Wes was already dead and we buried him." Soul pulls me even closer and buries his face in my neck. "That is it. Black*Star and Tsubaki joined us. They had the jeep and we found the forest patch where we started to live."

I slowly nod. "I'm sorry you w―"

"Don't apologize. You couldn't have done anything. We were both kids and we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. We had no clue what a simple kiss between a male and a female could lead into this." Soul kisses my forehead. "What I want to know is, what will we do know? You remember what happened so, how will we move forward?"

"I just want to ask you one question before I answer yours." I wipe away my tears and pull away from Soul so I can look into his eyes. "I want to know, how did you find me that night on the road and why did you go this far to get me?"

"Isn't it already obvious?" Soul smiles faintly. "I never got over you. I never forget the time we shared together even though it was just two years. I wanted to find you again and when I was sixteen and with Black*Star and the gang, I looked you up and found you. That was also when I found all about the Reborn project. I saw how Tsubaki and Black*Star could be together, and I wanted you just like Black*Star had her. So I followed what you were doing as often as I could when we were in town, and when I found out you were going to Death Vegas, I knew that was my shot at getting you away from everything and try to get you to remember me." Soul nuzzle close to me brushes his head affectionately, almost like a cat. "I knew for a very long now that I love you."

Those words. I had always through I would receive them from a woman. I had never expected I would be the one to be in an illegal relationship with a man. I know now how much I need Soul and how much I do love him. He was my child romance and I had been so joyful after that kiss.

Ever since that kiss, my childhood crush had evolved into love.

My feelings had disappeared with the memories, but I think in my heart, I couldn't seriously look for someone since I still had that nagging feeling that I loved someone and I didn't want someone else than him.

He made an effort in getting me back, I have no plans of ever leaving him.

"I love you too." My first words and I don't feel ashamed for loving a male. "And I just want you to know that I want to be with you. Always. Wherever you go, I follow."

He smiles wide and his head tips down to my mouth, his upper lip feathering mine. "You really mean that?"

"Yes, I do want to s―"

Soul's lips cut me off and waves of pleasure mixed with love washes over me.

I can definitely get used to living like this.

And that is exactly what I did. I grew more and more used to this life style. I helped Tsubaki in her mini garden where she grew carrots, potatoes and many different kinds of herbs. I also learned the milk they used to porridge and the soup actually came from a camel they had caught. The camel provided hair that Tsubaki could make blankets of, milk for food and hopefully if we find another camel we could get them to mate.

Every day I learned something new about our lifestyle. I learned that Tsubaki was the one who always went back to the city to get us fresh groceries or other supplies like towels, new clothes or tools. It was also her who got the tents for us.

As the days goes by, Soul and I got closer and I grew more and more in love with him. Black*Star was really happy when he found out I would take his hammock in Soul's tent. Surprisingly when Soul had taken me here, he had kicked Black*Star out of Tsubaki's tent and given me his hammock, so now we had swapped. It was weird falling asleep with someone, but it was a pleasant kind of weird. Falling asleep in Soul's arms and his scent all around me to then wake up with him staring into my eyes, kissing me good morning to then just cuddle together, it is a wonderful feeling.

Love is so much better than I thought it could ever be.

"Hey Soul." Black*Star says. Soul and I look up from the pot of soup we are making together. "Tsubaki is going to town later today. We will need some fuel for the jeep."

Soul nods. "Alright, how many dunks?"

"Two should do. Tsubaki and I will take over the cooking while you and Maka go and get the water." Black*Star says and Tsubaki joins us with more wood for the fire underneath the pot.

"Make sure you will be back in two hours. Dinner should be ready by then." Tsubaki says, putting down the branches beside fire.

"Okay." I say putting down the knife on the cutting board. "We will try to be back by then."

Soul's hand finds mine as we walk up the mountain. I giggle as we bump our shoulders toward the other playfully. "You know," I smile, getting in front of Soul while walking backwards up the mountain, "I have been here for exact two weeks now."

Soul looks up, like he is calculating if it is really true. "Yeah, it seems just about right." Soul squeezes my hand. "Two wonderful and amazing weeks." He lifts my hand and kisses my knuckles lovingly. "And many more just as wonderful and just as amazing, maybe even better."

How can something even grow better when I'm practically in heaven?

We arrive at the lake and we drop the dunks. Soul releases my hand and without even a warning, he takes off his shirt, revealing a very skinny and bony chest.

"H-hey!" I blush, avoiding looking at him. "We were supposed to get the water for the jeep and return to the camp."

"Who cares?" Soul says, taking off his shoes and pants, leaving him only in his boxers. "We are both very dirty and could use a bath. We will still be able to make it back in time."

I gasp loudly when I see Soul grabs his underwear. I look away and I hear Soul dive into the lake, completely nude. Turning my eyes back toward the lake. He swims around, smiling at me. "Come one, get in. The water is warm."

I blush. I do smell and taking a bath does sound like a good idea. "Turn around and don't peek!"

Soul raises his arms into the air and turns his back toward me. My clothes join Soul's on the ground. First my shoes and then my leggings. I shed every layer of my clothes and I'm left naked. Soul doesn't turn around as I walk down into the water. The water covers my chest when I stand right behind Soul. "You can turn around now." I say.

Slowly he turns around toward me and I feel very exposed. The water does cover me, but just having the water as my only cover, it does make me a little nervous. His eyes wander down to where the water covers my skin before they wander back up to my eyes. His hands find mine under the water, gently caresses my hands, taking a step toward me.

"You know." Soul says as his hands wander up my arms. "You are even more beautiful that I had pictured."

My cheeks are hot, like hotter than the bonfire at our camp. My heart beats faster than a hummingbird's wings. "You have pictured me naked?"

"Yeah." Soul says, not ashamed at all. "What? You haven't pictured me nude?"

Yes. Yes I have. I have only read in books and at school they talked about that men doesn't function the same as women. They don't have a vagina, instead they had a penis that looks kind of like a sausage and a sack behind it. I know in order to reproduce, the guy has to put his penis inside of my vagina.

I don't really know how a penis really looks like in real life other than drawings. It is kind of hard to picture his naked area, but I do want to find out.

"Kind of." I blush and look away from Soul as his hands wrap around my waist, pulling me closer to him. "I-I mean," I need to shove my head into a freezer or else I will explode! "I don't know how a…" I gulp, "know how… a guy… looks…" get the words out! "Looks nude."

Soul chuckles and caresses my waist with his thumbs. "One day you will find out how I look naked." Soul smirks and pulls me flush to his body, our chests pushing against each other's. "That day might be today."

I gap like a fish. Words are an impossible task when I feel Soul's naked skin against mine. My breasts are pressing up against his and I feel self-conscious. Am I enough? The though disappears as I feel his junk pressing against my hipbone. I can't breathe, my lungs are squashed and my eyes are wide.

Okay. Breathe. This is Soul. The one you love.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Okay, now the hard part is to remember it.

"I―I―" I stutter.

How do I breathe again?

Soul puts his hand on my lips and gently hushes me. His face moves closer to mine. "You don't have to say anything." He smiles affectionate and he removes his finger. "Let your kisses speak for you." His lips meet mine and he kisses me slowly and lovingly. He doesn't demand the kiss to be deeper or try to force me into something. Our lips move slowly against each other and I find myself concentrating more on his lips than his junk pressing against me.

My arms slip around his neck and I pull Soul closer to me, but I don't ask to deepen the kiss. It is nice kissing him like this, slowly and lovingly.

Soul pulls away and rests his forehead on mine. "You okay now?"

I nod after a moment and massage his neck. "Yeah." My hands slide down to his chest. "We should probably hurry up a little. Our time must soon be up."

"Y―" Soul's eyes suddenly shift to something behind me and they turn from soft and lovingly to tense and suspicious. He retrieves his arms from me and walks pass me, the waves from the walk crash into my chest. I turn toward him and that is when I notice what he is looking at.

Cars. Cars adapted to the desert. It is at least five cars and they are all coming toward us; toward the camp.

"We need to get away from here." Soul leaps up from the water and starts throwing on his clothes. "We need to warn the others and escape immediately." He doesn't bother with button his buttons, he just throws on his underwear, pants and in his hast, and he grabs his shoes and runs downhill.

"Right behind you!" I yell. I leave my leggings behind and puts only on my skirt, underwear, bra and shirt. I hold my boots in my hands as I clumsily button the buttons.

I almost fall in my hurry to catch up with Soul. Branches hit my face as I stumble down the mountain as fast as I can and when I do arrive at the bottom. Soul has already alerted the others of the incoming threat.

"Pack up everything important! We will leave in thirty seconds!" Black*Star exclaims. Everybody runs around, grabbing tools, clothes, taking down a tent clumsily. Tsubaki takes the hot pot of soup into the jeep.

"Did you bring the fuel?" Black*Star asks.

My eyes widen.

No! We forgot! We left the dunk by the lake!

"Shit!" Soul beats me to it. "No. They are up at the hill."

Black*Star curses colorfully as he grips his head. "The jeep won't take us far. With the weight of how many people we are, it will approximately take us six miles."

"Why are they even here?" I ask as the others pack the things into the jeep.

I have a feeling I already know the answer. They are coming for me. I went missing. I never called my mother and the car wasn't exactly concealed at a very good place. It was beside the road just down a slope! The tracker in my necklace stopped working, of course my mother would go everywhere in order to find me. She has always been too overprotective of me.

There could be a way in order to save them from the incoming troops of women. The car can't go for far, but if they get what they want, they won't keep looking for the o―

"No!" Soul exclaims and grabs my hands. "I know what you are thinking. I know that look and you are not going to stay behind!" His eyes are narrow and his grip on me is tight.

"You know you all won't escape if I'm with you." I say, squeezing his hands back. "Please, I promise I will return. I promise I will escape them and I will come back to you. I'm not ready to leave you again. This will just be temporary."

Soul pulls me into a rough but passionate hug. The others jump inside of the car. "What if they use Reborn on you? This time you might not be able to remember me."

I inhale a large drag of his scent before I pull away from him. "They won't." I give him a large smooch on his lips before I push him toward the jeep. "Now go! You need to be gone from here before they are too close to notice your car."

Instead of Soul climbing into the car, he closes the door to the backseat. "Go. Maka and I will stay behind and distract them." He slams the driver's door in Black*Star's face before he reluctantly drives away.

"You idiot." I say, feeling like I want to cry. "You are going to be in so much trouble! Don't you know what they will think when they find me here with you, a MALE?!" My throat tightens and I run into his embrace. "You could get yourself killed!"

"Then I will die." Soul hugs me back tightly, resting his head on mine. "I will die protecting the one I love. That is a reason enough to die for." Soul kisses my forehead. "Listen, here is the story, I'm a hooligan who ruined your tires and kidnapped you here. I forced you to stay here against your will and I did nasty things toward you as forcing myself on you but never sleeping with you, okay?"

I shake my head. "No, I'm in this with you. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to abandon you." I cup his face and look into his eyes. "You hear me? I'm here for the long run. I don't care if they will kill us both. I'm here with you. I want to be with you till the end." Our lips collide in one final passionate kiss. Soul kisses me with such intensity from the calm kiss in the lake. We both know this might be our final kiss and damn we are going to put everything we have in it.

Women break through the branches and leaves, pointing guns toward us. "You are under arrest!" they cry out loudly.

I cling onto Soul and he presses our bodies close to each other's. "I love you." He whispers into my ear. "I love you with all my heart and I'm begging you, lie to them. Tell them I'm bad."

We are ripped apart from each other. Women in suits roughly pulling us away from each other. "I love you too!" I yell to him. "And I don't―" A women shoves a cloth into my mouth to shut me up. I struggle in their grasps as well as I can. I rip at my arms, kicks, shoves and stomp on their feet. Damn steel boots.

Soul fights with equal vigor. She seems to have a larger effect on them but he isn't able to break free from them. I'm pull inside of a large black van and the door cuts my vision of Soul off as he is pulled into a different van.

Oh Soul.

The van starts and the women put handcuffs behind my back.

My heart feels shattered. As the car roughly drives away from our paradise in the forest, I miss Soul more than anything. Tears trickle down my face and all I want is to feel Soul's hand in mine, smell his scent and hear him whispering soothing words.

Will we be alright? At the moment, I don't think so.

Two female guards take me into a cell inside of the police house. "You will be questions soon." One of the women says before they lock the cell door behind me.

Questioned. That means if they determined mine and Soul's relationship as being illegal, they will execute us at towns square. If they determine it was Soul who kidnapped me, then he will be killed by being hung at the square and I will probably go back to the Reborn project and have my memories removed. This time, for real.

I know Soul will play the game of lies, he will. But I'm not going to be a part of it. I love him and I would rather do this together with him than betray him. If he is going to die either way, I'm going to walk up on that podium with him, holding his hand.

We got our trial and I finally saw Soul. He was sitting across the room with handcuffs, not giving me even a look. His hair covered his face.

My mother was also there with a lawyer. When it was my time to speak after Soul pulled his story about him kidnapping me, I told them it wasn't true and that I loved him. My lawyer and my mother were quick to say I had "Stockholm Syndrome" when in fact I didn't. I violently disagreed about everything they said and now I had Soul, my mother and my lawyer to fight against.

They fought for nothing. The judge gave both Soul and I the death penalty to be beheaded on the town square at sunset. I had managed to convince them that Soul's and mine relationship was indeed illegal and therefore I got to be together with Soul at last.

They put Soul and I in the same cell.

"Soul." I say and wrapping my arms around him. How I have longed to feel his body against mine. "I know you wanted me to live, but there is no life without you. That is a fact." I plant a kiss on his shoulder before I move aside his hair from his face, I gasp loudly. Large bruises litter his beautiful skin. His left eye is swollen so badly he can't open his eye. His jaw seems to be very damaged or broken since as soon as I touch the swollen purple skin, he flinches away.

"You are hurt." I whisper, carefully touching his bruised face. "Does it hurt a lot?"

He looks away from me and my hands slip from his face. "I could have been better." He mutters as he grabs my hand. "I would have been better if they would have released you and I would have been the only one walking up on the podium." His hand is shaking. "I knew from the moment I understood what the kiss meant, I knew I would die on the podium. I never did fear dying, but now, when you are in the same predicament as me." His voice cracks. "I'm scared."

Cautiously I pull Soul toward me and let him rest his head on my shoulder. My shirt. It is growing wet.

"You don't need to be." I caress his hair while I rest my head on his. "I'm here… we are in this together…" I plant a kiss on his head. "I'm scared too… I feel bad too that you are in this situation… but I would rather be here together with you than anyone else…"

Soul's arms wrap around my waist and he sobs. "I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you… I couldn't protect you then and I can't now…"

I wish I could erase that horrible day. I wish I had never brought up about kissing Soul. If I didn't then we would have been okay. He would most likely still have been my slave and he would be living with me in the house and we could have kept our relationship a secret. We could have been together and been happy.

"Don't think about it. You know I wanted this. I would rather die than be in the Reborn project again. I don't want to be brainwashed into someone I'm not. I would rather die with you as who I am than living as someone I'm not." I whisper into his ear. "This was my choice. I want to die with you. I'm not doing this to hurt you, I'm doing this with you because this is what I want."

Now I'm crying too.

My tears soak Soul's hair. "I love you so much I can't stand a life without you." I sniffle loudly. "Living as a Reborn without you was hell. I don't want to go through that ever again―"

A loud shriek of a metal door opening fills the air.

Is it already sunset? No, we just got back here. It can't already be time for it.

The sound of footsteps echoes throughout the prison. Soul's arms tighten around me and I cling onto him in return.

Relief shoots through me when I see it is just my mother. It isn't time yet.

"Maka darling." She says, holding the bar. "You know better than this? You are an intelligent young woman and you go and do this with your life." Her hand tightens around the bar. "What did I do wrong? Why did you choose to enter an illegal relationship?"

My blood grows hot and I dig my nails into Soul's shirt. I must cling onto something or I will do something I will regret. "You want to know why?" I grit my teeth. "Because unlike you, I can actually feel something toward a person. I love Soul and I would rather be with him than live a second with you. I would never make my daughter go through the pain I did go through at Reborn." Releasing one of my hands from Soul I dig into my skirt pocket and finds the locket the Reborn project had given me.

I don't give it much thought, I throw the locket toward my mother and bull's eye, I hit her face. "You manipulated me into someone I'm not!" I look away from my mother. "I hate you for what you did. You took the one person that meant the most to me away from me. He suffered so on the streets. You have no idea what horrible things he saw and how he had to fight just to survive. He was only ten when you threw him out!" I sob violently. "Now go! I have no more to say to you."

My grip on Soul tightens.

"Maka…" He whispers into my ear. He rubs my back and stays in my arms.

"I have something to say." My mother says but I do not turn toward her. "You are my only little girl. I did what I did in order to protect you from growing these feelings. I didn't like what I did, but I did it in order to protect you. I knew getting you that boy would be bad for you. You always were so passionate and loving person, not even men could keep those feelings away from you." I hear the sound of her shoes hit the stone ground as she walks away. "Even now, when you hate me so and love a male, my love for you never wavers. If this is what will make you happy, to die with the man you love, then I won't try to save you or stop you."

The door slams shut and I know my mother is gone for good.

I'm not even feeling bad about it.

"Maka…" Soul says again. "I love you…"

"I know you do…" I plant a kiss on Soul's forehead. "And I love you very much too…"

The door opens again and this time, it is the guards. Our time is up.

I get up on my feet but I don't let go off Soul. Soul wraps his arm around my shoulders and I keep my arms around his waist. The guards open the door to the cell. "Get out. It is time."

We are as close as we can to each other. Three guards are walking in front of us and two behind us. When we reach the exit of the building, another two guards come and cuts of the sides. We can't escape. This truly is the end.

There is a sea of people standing at the town square. I recognize some of them as my classmates when I went to school, my coworkers from my past jobs and past clients. I know half of the people and I bet the men at the back know Soul.

For about two weeks ago, I drove out of the town and on my way I saw the execution of an illegal couple, and illegal love. Then I never understood why they held hands or showed each other love. Why would they disrespect the system and our beliefs I had thought. Now I'm the equality fucker that embraces my love as I walk up on the podium.

Soul lowers his face to mine and kisses me quick, but very passionately, showing me just how much he loves me with one short kiss. "I love you Soul." I whisper against his chest as I hold onto him tightly. "Don't be scared. I'm here."

"I love you too." Soul keeps planting kisses on my head and forehead. "I'm not. I'm no longer afraid."

Two guards walk up to us and rip us apart from each other. I reluctantly let go off Soul and the guard takes me to one of the guillotines that decorating the podium. The crowd watches me as the guard put my neck and hands at the holes before lowering the board, successfully trapping me in the death trap. I look toward my left and I see Soul is also looking at me. My heart skips a beat when I see the large knife over his head. I know that knife could drop at any given moment and we will be gone. I do feel scared for him, I do hate seeing that blade at the top of the death trap and knowing this is the end of our love.

Our love didn't last that very long. Two weeks. The best two weeks of my life, weeks that I would want to be a lifetime.

It will end today because of a stupid society that sees men as a threat when in fact they are just as caring and loving as women.

I can't keep the tears from blurring my eyes.

Soul's eyes are tearing up as well and he smiles faintly toward me. "I will see you on the other side."

The guards holler to the others to grab the ropes.

I smile faintly toward Soul. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to it." I drink away the sight of the man I love before I close my eyes.

I don't regret choosing to die today. Dying beside the one I love is an honor.

"Release!" The guard hollers and I hear the ropes let go and the blade comes rushing toward my neck in the wooden frame.

But the pain never comes. Instead the sound of the blade stops and I hear a very familiar and obnoxious voice.

"YAHOOO! Your god has arrived!"

I thought I would never say this, but I'm so happy to hear his ignorant voice.

Cracking my eyes open, I look above my head and I see the blade is stopped by a throw ninja star in the frame of the guillotine. The blade is just a hairs breath away from beheading me.

The crowd gasps loudly and some even starts screaming. Soon I find the board lifts up from my neck and Soul is standing in front of me. "We need to get away from here." Soul grabs my hand and hoists me up from the death trap. We run hand in hand off the podium and I see the black spiky ponytail of Harvar run in front of us. We quickly round a corner and there is the desert jeep along with… my car. The one I crashed into the tree with.

They must have fixed it.

Tsubaki waits inside of the desert jeep and Soul and I throw us into the back seat. Harvar jumps inside of my old car where Kilik waits. Tsubaki speeds away and just around another corner on the way out of the city, she slows down and Black*Star jumps into the passenger seat and she quickly speeds away from Death City.

Soul hugs me tightly as he kisses me hair, forehead, nose, cheeks, jaw and neck, heck he is kissing ever surface of me and I happily kiss him back. Tears of joy trickle down my face and Soul quickly wipes them away.

I want to scream. Scream as loud as I can in joy for getting a second chance in this cursed world with Soul. It isn't over, if we won't die today, we had another morning to experience and more kisses to share and skin to touch. I can stop kissing Soul. I can't stop gripping at his collar and pulling him closer to me. He is like my drug, I can't stay away from him, not even society will keep me away from him.

"Geez, they are practically doing it in the backseat." Black*Star snickers. If I weren't kissing Soul, I would have definitely hit him. He may have saved us, but that doesn't make him safe from punches when he is making stupid remarks. We almost died today! We have the right to "practically doing it in the backseat."

Soul pulls away from me and he caresses my face. Even with his bruised face, I still find him very attractive and desirable.

"Did I hurt you?" I whisper and he shakes his head.

"I'm fine." Soul kisses my neck as he pulls me closer to him by my waist. "I'm just so happy you are okay."

Okay.

Physically, we might be okay, but we are far from okay. We are the first ones in the history of our society who has escaped from the guillotines. The queen and the government won't let us live happily ever after. They will be hunting us down and with our paradise found, we must find a new place away from the government. We have to start over again and I will need to change my appearance and my identity, but at least, this is the good kind. I will still be me, bodily I will change, but emotionally and mentally I will still be me.

We might be safe from the government now, and ten seconds in the future, but they won't stop trying to find us and one day, we will walk up on that podium again and that time, the blade will cut off our necks.