A/N: Today's prompt is from TheAUWalker. "Motionless" features Stein, Charlotte and Spirit. Marie is there, somewhere. I liked this enough that I wanted to post it as a one-shot in its own right instead of as a part of my one word prompts fic. I don't own Soul Eater and Charlotte belongs to TheAUWalker. Please enjoy.
Stein stared straight ahead as Spirit was talking to him. He didn't move, barely even blinked, his body stiff and motionless. Charlotte sat beside him, her actions the same. Spirit tried vainly to keep up a conversation, but his attempts kept falling flat. Finally even Spirit gave up at the trio sat there in silence.
It started as a hiccup. Both men turned to look at the girl and she just drew her knees up to her chest and laid her head on them, looking to the side and away from both of them. Neither man said anything, though Stein reached his hand out to touch her shoulder gently. The hiccup turned to a full-fledged sob when he did and Charlotte buried her face in her knees.
They both knew why the girl was so distraught. Tears pricked at Spirit's eyes and he blinked rapidly to clear them. He had known that Stein and Charlotte were, for lack of a better word, involved and hadn't said anything to Marie- the woman was in Oceania after all. He blamed himself as much as Charlotte and Stein blamed themselves.
None of them had ever expected Marie to return unannounced from Oceania and let herself into the lab. None of them had ever expected it to happen on a night when both Charlotte and Stein were deep in their shared madness. No one could have predicted that Marie would choose to stand her ground rather than flee and seek help.
No one could have ever imagined that a surprise visit might cost the woman her life.
Spirit had found her, broken and bloody, on the floor beside the main entrance to the lab the next morning. He had immediately called 9-1-1, hovering over her as he scanned down the hallways, looking for any sign of Stein or Charlotte. He had seen two pairs of feet sticking around the corner of the hallway, but forced himself to stay with Marie until the paramedics had arrived, and then led the paramedics to what he had seen.
They found Stein and Charlotte tangled together. Bruises covered Stein's bare chest and a there was a large one on Charlotte's left leg. Blood coated the pair of them and there was a fresh incision that looked like it had been hastily stitched on Charlotte's right arm. Neither meister had reacted when the paramedics had loaded them into the ambulance with Marie, though Spirit had had to follow in his own vehicle.
Stein and Charlotte had both awoke later, and been released. They now sat in the waiting room with Spirit, waiting to see if Marie would survive the surgeries she had to have. Stein's hands clenched suddenly and he stood, striding to the doors that led to the operating areas and slammed a fist against them before leaning his head against them.
Spirit knew that the man was as close to crying as he would ever come. Charlotte's sobbing eventually tapered off and she sat there with her face buried in her knees, motionless. Stein paced for a while, his hand cranking the screw in his head over and over.
"Stein, pacing isn't going to get the surgery done any faster. Sit down, you're making me nervous," Spirit's voice called out.
Stein glanced over at him and sighed. "I should be the one operating on her, Senpai."
Spirit was silent for a moment before replying. "Given the… circumstances… I think that you can understand why they won't allow you to. Once Marie wakes up… if she does… they're going to ask her who hurt her. I think we all know the answer to that question, and it isn't robbers."
Stein's hand clenched into fists. He glared at death scythe and finally stopped pacing, sitting across from Spirit with his head in his hands.
An hour later the doors opened and a man wearing a blue set of scrubs walked out. There was blood on his shirt and he was still wearing his surgical mask, though it was draped down against his throat. Spirit was on his feet along with Stein, though Charlotte just sat there with her head on her knees.
"Well?" Stein demanded, striding towards the doctor.
Spirit's arm shot out, blocking Stein's path as he stepped in front of the scientist. Something was bothering Spirit about this, and he had a bad feeling.
"Ms. Mjolnir is in critical condition, even after the surgeries. We're not sure if she will survive even now. There was extensive damage to multiple internal organs along with multiple broken bones. If she survives, she will have to go through physical therapy to regain use of all her motor functions. We're waiting on when she comes out of the anesthetic to see if she has regained consciousness," the man's voice was monotone.
Spirit felt the almost growl that rose in Stein's chest. Charlotte burst into a renewed bout of sobbing and Spirit could feel the tears slide down his own face.
"But… she's stable right now, right? She's in a room and we can see her?" Spirit asked quickly. The doctor just nodded.
After Spirit got the room number Stein coaxed Charlotte out of her seat and they followed the death scythe up to Marie's room. There were two nurses in the room when they entered, but both excused themselves, telling them to alert them if Marie were to awaken.
Spirit and Stein both stood on opposite sides of Marie's bed. Spirit held Marie's hand in his as he knelt, looking at the woman. Stein hand rested on the bed beside hers, just the tips of his fingers touching hers as he took in the damage to her.
There were cuts on her face and arms, and he could see a large one that disappeared under the neck opening of her gown. The eyelid on her left eye sported several small holes that he could tell came from removed stitches. Her bottom lip was split and her right cheek was bruised. She was breathing from an oxygen mask and had an IV in both arms. He could see the catheter line trailing out from underneath the blanket she was covered in.
All of that wasn't what bothered him though. What bothered him was that Marie was lying there completely motionless. The rising of her chest was almost imperceptible and there was no movement beneath her right eyelid.
Spirit was talking quietly to her; Stein couldn't quite make out what the other man was mumbling, but he assumed that it was comforting. He didn't waste his breath; he knew that Marie wouldn't hear him, that there was a good chance that she wasn't even out from under the effects of the anesthesia yet. It surprised him though when he heard Charlotte's quiet voice beside him though.
"I'm so, so sorry…" tears choked the other woman's voice. "I… I couldn't stop myself."
Both men looked at her and Stein turned his body towards her. "You remember what happened, Charlotte?"
Her eyes were filled with tears as she nodded. "I remember all of it, I just couldn't do anything. It was like I was trapped motionless in my own body. No matter how hard I tried to stop myself, I couldn't make my body listen to myself." Charlotte's tears slipped down her cheeks as she took a shuddering breath. "I did it. You watched… you watched and laughed and laughed. I remember it. You said you wanted to see which one of us would win. Which one of your two women was stronger… I didn't want it to be me but I couldn't stop myself!"
Charlotte hit her knees then, and Stein was beside her a second later, the woman sobbing against him. Spirit looked down at her in shock.
There was a quiet knock on the door and the three of them looked up as a man in a uniform slipped into the room. Spirit moved to greet him, extending his hand.
"Spirit Death-Scythe Albarn. Can I help you with something?"
The man looked over his shoulder. "I was simply going to see if Ms. Mjolnir was awake yet. We were hoping to get a statement about what happened to her."
All eyes were on the officer, and so they were surprised when Marie's voice, weak though it was, answered.
"I was attacked on my way to a friend's house. I made it there, but the people who had attacked me followed me," all eyes turned to the barely conscious woman as she continued. "They were fighting them, but I passed out before I saw what happened."
"Is that your official statement, ma'am?" Marie just gave a weak nod and the man nodded back, writing it down in a notebook before leaving.
"Marie?" Stein asked as he turned back to her.
She just gave him a small smile as her eye slipped back closed. "You weren't you, Charlotte… neither of you would hurt me intentionally. It's fine," her breathing slowed as she drifted off to sleep.
Marie Mjolnir has never woke back up. They removed her from the life support machine after a week, and Stein removed her from the hospital when they did. She has laid motionless in the lab for almost a month, attached to a life support machine there. Stein spends most of his time in the lab that she lays in, and Charlotte spends time there as well.
Neither of them have had any episodes of madness since that day. Neither are certain if it is because of her proximity or because of the guilt they both feel for what they did, and then what she did for them. They both hope that one day she will open her eyes again, and be the vibrant and active woman they both knew.