She craved combat. It wasn't that she craved the bloodshed, the violence. She didn't enjoy the way it felt when she was slammed into another living, breathing entity- in fact, she despised it. The only reason she enjoyed combat, craved it, was because that was the only time that he would physically touch her.

He would allow her to touch him, but he never touched her except when it was necessary- and that was only necessary in combat, and so she grew to crave it.

She was constantly afraid that he would figure it out, that he could sense her eagerness through the bond that they shared while resonating. She was worried that he would fear that his own madness, his lust for bloodshed, was bleeding through and infecting her. She was afraid that if he ever found out that she craved it he would force her to leave.

When she found out that they were being sent out again she could barely contain her excitement. She did everything that she could to keep it under wraps, to make sure that she played the part that she had carefully crafted for years. She complained about retirement, she muttered about how she hoped it was an easy assignment, the whole time craving the combat that she knew was going to come.

"Marie, focus!" Stein's voice cut through her thoughts, forcing the weapon's attention back to the forefront. The other person stood in front of them, lightning crackling around her hands in a parody of the wavelength that danced around Stein's free hand.

Marie wasn't even aware of the contact that she had been craving, her entire form aching from the discharge the person had just sent through her, and anger rushing through her at the fact that, of all things, it had been done with what had to be lightning.

She was more than eager to strike back as Stein swung her towards their opponent. She blocked out the pain that coursed through her, watching the lightning wash over Stein without touching him and envying his ability to negate it even as she felt the crunch of bones that signified a solid blow. It was only when Stein stepped back, staggering as their opponent suddenly thrust forward that Marie understood what was going on.

They weren't fighting a witch, as they had been led to believe. They were fighting a meister, and a very good one at that.

Fear washed through her before she felt the touch of Stein's soul, demanding resonance. She readily bared herself to him, letting his soul subsume hers as it always did. She felt their wavelength grow, and could sense the fear from the other meister. It fascinated her, as it always did, at how much Stein must sense from those around him daily that everyone else was blind to.

It was only then that she realized she was completely open to him, that there was no way that she had hid anything from him. A quiet chuckle, one that she wasn't sure whether it was his or hers, resounded deeply in her mind. She recoiled involuntary, physically and mentally, and Stein couldn't compensate in time.

She was knocked from his grasp- the shock of their resonance breaking forcing her back into human form before she even landed. She raised her head in time for blood to spray her in the face, blinding her. She staggered to her feet, her arm wiping ineffectually at her face as she moved backwards, before she managed to blink enough out of her eyes to see again.

The meister that they had been sent to fight was between her and Stein, a grin on the woman's face that seemed to split it in two.

"He remembers me, why don't you?"

Stein hit the ground hard, his teeth clacking together as their opponent produced the broken blade of a garden slasher from behind her back. It cut deeply into the arm that he raised to protect his face, and blood sprayed. He was staggering to his feet, his hand clutched over the wound even as she turned to Marie, smiling.

Time seemed to freeze for the scientist. He was aware of his own movement, surging towards their opponent as she stood in front of Marie, giving the death scythe time to wipe his blood from her face, smiling as if she had just met an old friend for the first time in years.

He stopped as their opponent stepped to Marie, the broken blade falling to the ground. He watched as she wrapped her arms around the death scythe, giving her a warm hug.

"It's ok, I forgive you. It's been a long time."

Marie's eye was wide as the woman stepped away from her, and Stein's world shattered as she spoke.

"Char… Charlotte?"

Marie froze in the woman's arms, her mind racing. Bits of memories flooded back, the woman's appearance clicking, drudging through the fog of her mind.

As she stepped back, a name clicked into place, much to the delight of the woman.

"I knew you'd remember me!" she cheered, pumping a fist into the air. "This is amazing. I knew it was worth coming here with Rim. You needed us, didn't you?"

"What did you do to him?!" Stein bellowed out suddenly, grabbing Charlotte with his good arm, his wavelength crackling around his left hand, blood flowing down his arm and mixing with it.

She smiled at him and looked at the broken blade beside her. "I did an experiment. Did you know that if you kill a weapon in weapon form they stay that way? I guess it makes sense, I mean, the Kishin's weapon was still in weapon form and obviously dead. But there was so little research on it… besides, this is what a weapon is supposed to be," her voice dropped from happy to serious in a breath, "a weapon. They shouldn't be gallivanting around as a person. They aren't."

Stein's hand clenched in her shirt and she looked over her shoulder at Marie. "No offense, I like you a lot as a person. But you're a weapon, and weapons have one purpose in life."

Stein was left holding her shirt as she slipped downward, dropping before he could catch her. She darted to where the garden slasher's blade lay on the ground, grabbing it and was at the death scythe before either of them could react.

The blade drove into Marie's stomach, and her blood mixed with the blood from his arm on her dress. Charlotte's face twisted into a mockery of gentle admonishment.

"Weapons are supposed to kill or be killed. Looks like you're on the lower end of that spectrum. This time he won't stop me."

Stein cried out wordlessly, slamming into Charlotte, his injured arm slamming into the other meister as Marie collapsed to the ground, her hands clenched around her stomach. Charlotte's weapon, 'Not Rim, it isn't Rim,' Stein thought desperately, fell from her hand as they hit the ground a short distance from the injured meister.

Charlotte screamed, flailing ineffectually. He was larger, stronger, and prepared for her wavelength to batter against his this time. The pain in his arm was forgotten. Nothing mattered except subduing Charlotte before she could finish what she had attempted years ago.

He would return her to Lord Death. She would pay for her crimes.

A/N: Think of this as a bit of a teaser, something to whet your appetite for more to come. I've been missing lately from the Soul Eater scene, and it is high time that I returned.

I don't own Charlotte. She belongs to TheAUWalker.