Where Affection Lies

By MidnightSting

Chapter 4: Affection Lies

Part 1: Outer Lies

"What do you mean, 'she's been corrupted by black blood'?" Soul was beginning to panic. He could see the slightest flicker of sadness in the professor's eyes, and from him it seemed like a sure sign of demise.

"Well," Stein began as he led Soul through his front gate while holding Maka, the object of Soul's attention, closely as he sped down the walkway to his front door where Marie peeked out from the interior.

"Well?" Soul questioned as he quickened his pace to that of the professors to catch a glimpse of Maka's face. She was still in pain.

"You know that in the final battle with Asura Maka awakened her weapon gene while unconscious correct?" Soul nodded in reply as he glanced up to see Stein staring back down at Maka's soul once more. "Well," he continued, "the black bloods using that gene, a separate soul if you will, to overpower her own grigory soul."

"But," Soul paused in both fear, and confusion, "how's something like that even possible?" he asked finally as Marie opened the door for them to enter.

"I'll take her now, Stein," Marie said in a kind, but uncertain voice.

"Yes, make sure you're gentle though, her soul's in chaos," Stein stated as he set Maka down on the couch, while Marie knelt down on the ground in front of it.

"W-what're you gonna do?" Soul asked, unable to mask his shaky voice. He couldn't loose his meister, he just couldn't!

"I'm going to attempt to cleanse as much of the black blood as I can from her soul with my healing soul wave link..." Marie stated as she bit her bottom lip in concentration.

"Does that mean Maka will be alright?" he asked in a slightly calmer voice.

"Not necessarily, I'm afraid," his heart dropped at Stein's words, "Maka's in an extremely fragile state right now, even the slightest pressure could break her soul completely. She's already experiencing slight soul-rejection as we speak..."

Soul whipped his head back to Maka's unconscious form just in time to see a black, slender, needle-like form burst out of his meister's side, and slice Marie's cheek open with a sickening, tearing noise.

"Careful, Marie," Stein warned as he stepped forward to place a hand on her shoulder, "I don't need anymore patients tonight."

"I know," Marie stated in a faint voice as she continued to concentrate on Maka's soul.

"How did this happen?" Soul shook his head in agony, as he collapsed to his knees under the pressure, "I thought the grigory soul could counteract the black blood!"

"It can," Stein stated as he glanced back to Soul assuring, "but when the gene she received from Spirit activated it took over a good section of the one her mother gave her, the grigory gene. As such, the grigory soul has been weakened by the weapon soul, and the black blood's using that to turn her soul into a state of chaos."

"So," Soul began as he cleared the lump from his throat, with much effort he noticed, "the black blood's been corrupting her ever since we defeated Asura?" Stein paused for a moment before replying.

"Yes," he looked away from Soul then, and it all began to make sense. That's what he had meant by telling Maka that if things continued like this she'd have to tell him. He didn't mean her father, he meant him!

"Why didn't you tell me?" Soul cried as he slammed his fists into his knees, "I would have never resonated with her if I had known that it was hurting her so badly!"

"And that was the point in not telling you," Soul swung his head up to give Stein a deadly stare, but he merely light a cigarette, and took a long drag. "Maka wouldn't let me tell you," Stein added finally as he turned back to Soul.

"Why?" Soul was in unimaginable agony. To think that he had been the leading cause in all of his meister's sufferings.

He couldn't bare it!

"She wanted to stay with you," Soul's eyes grew wide when he said it, but he understood it was true. It was hard enough for the two of them to stay together now that he had become someone as important as a death scythe, and Maka had worked hard to keep their partnership going. If they couldn't resonate... they would be separated...

"But still," Soul choked on his voice; "something like this..." he smothered a whimper in his throat, and tried to hold it together.

'Wow, you don't look cool at all, Soul,' he whipped his head up, and began to stand. Was that...?

"Maka?" Soul voiced out loud as he made his way over to her. The soul rejection had quieted down thanks to Marie, and Maka appeared to be in less pain, but she was nowhere near conscious; why then did he hear her—?

'Cool guys don't cry.' he gasped. It was Maka! But her lips weren't moving, and she was still unconscious.

"Hey," Soul began as he stared down at her from next to Marie, "Stein," he turned to said man, and gave him a look of curiosity.

"Yes?" Stein asked in a suspicious tone.

"Is it possible to soul resonate with her right now?" the question sounded dumb even to him, she was unconscious, and it was soul resonating that had landed them in this mess to begin with.

"Why?" Stein asked in a dark tone, as he no doubt tried to decode what the boy was thinking of doing.

"Well," he turned back to Maka, and rubbed the back of his hand down the soft skin of her cheek, "it's just..." he struggled for a way to say it without sounding crazy, "I can hear her, and I think she's communicating through a soul link of some sort. The only thing I can think of though is a soul resonance." Stein stared straight at him for sometime before replying.

"It's possible," Soul's eyes widened, "it's possible to resonate with someone who's unconscious, only if the connection is strong enough though."

"It is," Soul replied instantly. Stein seemed puzzled by his almost all-knowing tone. "We've done it before," Soul finished as he gripped his meister's hand.

"I see," Stein seemed almost happy at that comment, as though Soul had just told him a fairly large secret.

"Could I help her?" he asked finally as he stared, dead straight into Stein's eyes, "If I entered her soul I mean."

"That's..." Stein paused for a moment as if to mull this possibility over, "possible."

"Should I try?" Soul asked not pleased with Steins not very elaborate response.

"It's risky," Stein stated as he took a seat in a nearby armchair, "the moment you enter there will be an influx of black blood, and will momentarily make her circumstances worse," Stein's words cut deep, and Soul debated turning back from the idea. "However," he continued, "if you can somehow make contact with her soul, then combine it with your own for a moment then Marie and I would have enough internal strength to push all of our wave links at the black blood, eventually annihilating it."

"How am I supposed to 'combine' our souls?" Soul asked unsure of himself.

"A strong moment," he replied with another drag of his cigarette. That was it? His great description of how to pull off such a feat? A strong moment? He looked down to his meister in concern. Was it worth the risk?

"Also, if we can irradiate the black blood then I'll be able to go into soul surgery, and remove the weapon gene so this doesn't occur again," Stein stated as a bonus for Soul to add to the pros.

"Will that hurt her?" Soul asked wearily. Something like 'soul surgery' sounded painful, not to mention dangerous.

"No," Stein smiled back through the cigarette, "with modern technology I can take it out as easily as one would dissect a frog." Soul crinkled his nose at the last comment, memories of Stein's famous class dissections returning to memory. He didn't quite get the analogy, but it seemed like Stein was fairly confident.

Soul took one last glimpse at Maka, and knew that he had to do it. There was no way he could just sit back and do nothing now that he'd come this far. She'd dove into his infected soul to save him once, and he sure as hell'd return the favor!

"I'll do it," Soul stated finally as he leaned into his meister's unconscious form, touching her forehead with his own as he began the soul resonance.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Stein?" Marie questioned wearily as she turned to give him a concerned look, "Combining souls is no easy task." He merely smirked at her base question.

"If they can manage a soul resonance when one parties unconscious I'm sure they'll do just fine," Marie simply stared back at his all-knowing grin.

"I sure hope you're right," Marie sighed as she returned to healing Maka.

"I'm sure I am," he stated slyly as he stared down at the unconscious pair, "I'm sure I am."

...

lololololololololol

whys this part titled outerlies?

Idunevenknow.

JK 'bout what I had in here before. JUST GOT THE E-MAIL.

I feel the love guys. ;_;