While Maka was sleeping, a few defenders probed through the swampland. Needless to say, I got us away without danger. I carried her for miles, following a pebbled trail up to a nearby city. The city was small and melancholy, a couple taverns, a post office, a corner shop and a train station. A train station! I did a mental back-flip of happiness. I quickly brought us up to it. I used my side to push the door open.

Stepping inside, I was met by a cool breeze of air conditioning. In front of me was a woman sitting at a desk, typing away on her computer, had the company's phone craned between her neck and shoulder, reapplying her face powder and holding a compact mirror. I was almost intimidated by how calm her mannerism was.

"Okay, I will call you back as soon as another shipment is available. Yep. Thank you, good-bye," slamming the phone back into the receiver, she fixated her attention on me, "Can I help you?"

"Um, yes, hello." I almost forgot how beat up Maka and I looked, and how casual and beautiful the receptionist was, "Two tickets to anywhere, on the next ride." That's the moment when I remembered that I had no money.

The receptionist giggled for a couple seconds, then stopped herself by snorting, "You mean you want to ride in a cargo cart? This isn't a commuting train."

"Actually, yes." I store blankly at the stand of business cards that were next to her name tag. She must have felt pretty damn important, having a cheap name tag that was painted gold, "We're trying to leave our abusive guardians," that was the quickest excuse I could come up with, "We don't have any money…"

"Well," she leaned back in her office chair, making it squeak at an incline, "I can pretend I didn't see you get in one of the carts. It's the only way I can help you two out," pointing a manicured nail at the glass doors behind her, "Act like you're sneaking past me out to the parking yard, and jump on one of the trains."

"Thank you, that truly means a lot to me and my… sister." I stumbled out the last word. The worker nodded, resuming her multitasking routine. I exited the office out the back, and became instantly confused by all the signs and workers everywhere. There was a train, whose conductor had stopped to chat with a couple of the workers. The coach vibrated on the tracks, which was good because no one would hear us.

I walked off the platform, down the concrete stairs and along the tracks until I could find an opening for us to slip into. Thankfully, the last cart on the train's door was cracked open. I entered, closing it behind us. Diligently, I set Maka down on the cold floor of the wagon. She stumbled around a bit, before waking up.

Looking around, her eyes adjusted to the darkness, "Hey," she said coolly, like nothing happened these last few hours.

"Hi," I replied, sitting down next to her. The train jerked forward. I figured we were on our way to wherever.

"Know where we're going?" Maka was crawling around, exploring the contents of the cart. Shuffling around a couple of crates, she found a sack full of bread.

"Not a clue, the farther the better." bringing the food back, Maka tore open the bag, took a couple pieces of bread for herself and passed the bag to me.

"Why did you do it?"

"Hmm?" I was already stuffing my face with a bun.

"Why did you save me?"

I sat there, chewing and contemplating my decision. After a minute of silence, I finally spoke, "I don't know."

"C'mon, there has to be a reason." she teased, eating her share of food.

"Really, I don't know. I saw you, and something just happened," I felt my body rush in excitement. Woah, what the fuck is going on?

"What happened?"

"I just felt… like I couldn't kill you." My face heated up, and thankfully we were in the dark so she couldn't see my blush.

"I see. I would have done the same, Soul."

"Usually when I had to, well, kill, someone. I just didn't even think about it. I didn't even feel human, it felt like I was still stuck in that same stupid nightmare," she nodded in understanding, "but then I saw you, and it was different. Our entire time together flashed before me in mere seconds."

"I understand." Maka shrugged, "So you haven't thought about me, or us, since the incident?"

Thinking fast, I instantly spat out an involuntary, "No."

"Oh." she looked hurt, paused for a second, then resumed eating.

"Yes, Maka. I thought about you. I thought about us." I really felt like a douchebag now.

"I thought about you, too… I never thought I would see you again. I really thought you were dead, Soul. There was no word about you."

"Well, Patti is alive, too." I told her. Maka's face lit up in surprise.

"Really?" she asked with great enthusiasm, and I responded in a nod, "Kid is alive. He got out of there though, and only God knows where he went."

"Somewhere symmetrical," I tried to joke around, but my partner didn't seem to get it, "is that the only one you know about?"

"Well, I know Stein is dead for sure. He was executed."

"What?!"

"The regime thought he was behind the attack. He went to trial and everything, he was found guilty and they hung him."

The mental images were haunting me. I was imagining my mentor, swaying slightly in the wind, with a poorly tied noose around his neck, his cold, dead eyes staring out to the audience. I heard the cheers of everyone who thought he was guilty, "Did you see it?"

"See what?"

"Him. Stein, dead."

"What the fuck, Soul?" Maka wasn't usually one to swear, "Even if I was there, I would have never looked."

"I was just wondering." mindlessly, I took another bite of bread. I nearly puked trying to swallow it, still thinking of Stein's carcass. I quickly lost my appetite. We sat in lull for a couple of minutes, until Maka spoke up again.

"So, Patti is okay?"

"If you mean 'okay' by her being alive, yes. Otherwise, mentally and physically, no. In fact, it was really weird, but right before our encounter, Patti came into my room after having another nightmare. She would always dream about her sister being brought into the kill room."

"Well, I would be a basket case, too."

"How's your dad?" I asked out of sheer curiosity, almost being afraid of her response.

"Spirit neglected me for Blair, and they both ran off together. She was pregnant the last time I saw her, but that isn't really important." It felt important to me though, I couldn't image Blair's beautiful body being ruined by a pregnancy, especially a pregnancy with Spirit's child.

"Damn," I shook my head, "that's crazy. I can't believe how much has happened, you know?"

"I know."

The train rode the tracks rigidly, every turn caused the contents of the cart to slide back and forth between walls, almost nearly crushing us. Maka and I stayed in that wagon for a long time, I counted four suns and three moons, and still we didn't reach our destination. I wondered where the train was going. I wondered what the conductor was thinking while he was driving, if he was as anxious as we were to reach the destination. Except the difference between us and the conductor, was he lived a normal life, where after this ride, he would drive back home to his family and get paid for the expedition. Maka and I, once we got off this train, we were going to begin our lives as full-fledged fugitives.