"We can do some light training." Stein finally relented. "I know that you don't want to get out of practice, and it will do good to make sure that we're still able to resonate properly."

The woman grinned. "Thank you."

"Light training, Marie- nothing strenuous and nothing later than your 5th month of pregnancy."

"Something is better than nothing, Franken! I'm not even showing yet."

His gaze roamed up and down her body.

"You are barely."

She laughed as she threw the empty bottle she held in her hand at him. He dodged easily, but she caught the ghost of a smirk that crossed his face as he did.


"Focus, Marie."

The weapon in his hand bristled slightly. Their resonance was off. One of the two of them was out of sync, and even with Stein's wavelength they couldn't achieve a full resonance.

"I'm trying."

"Just relax and focus."

"Why don't you?" she snapped.

"Don't let your hormones interfere," he chided.

The woman sighed. It was their third day of training in just over a week, and they still hadn't managed it. It wasn't like she wasn't trying. Something was just… different. She couldn't put her finger on it though, and whatever it was was what was causing the issues.

Stein's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"There's a possibility that it's our child's soul that is throwing the resonance off."

"What?"

"I know that you don't have Soul Resonance but let me assure you that our," Marie caught the slight pause, "child has a soul. It could be interfering with our ability to resonate properly. We simply have to compensate for it. And not bring it into the resonance."

"But how?"

"I don't know, Marie."

She relaxed slightly and took a deep breath. "I guess we'll find out together then."


A week later they managed it, though both were tired and worn out from the mental strain. Stein had suggested multiple times that they just wait, but Marie had been adamant that they keep at it, in case something happened and they were forced into combat. They were still an active meister/weapon team.

Marie felt relief surge through her, and laughed from the sheer amount of relief that she felt. Her laughter briefly trailed to giggles and Stein found himself slightly worried.

He broke the resonance quickly, and changed the subject to when she was planning on telling Azusa and everyone else, since she was beginning to show even more.


With Marie starting to show her pregnancy, even slightly, they decided to let the rest know. The only person that they had told in advance was Spirit, and he had agreed to keep the secret until they decided to tell everyone.

So now, with her clothing not fitting quite properly and her emotions constantly swinging, Marie was finally going to make some phone calls and announce it to their class the next morning. She was currently on the phone with Azusa, and Stein could hear her laughing and talking. He couldn't quite make out what she was saying, but her wavelength wasn't spiking in anger, so he assumed that Azusa was taking it well.

He heard a brief lull in the conversation, and then Marie started speaking again. He assumed it was to someone new and tuned the woman out, delving back into the tests that he was currently running. Simple blood work on a sample he had taken from Marie; he was testing for anything out of the ordinary.

And finding nothing.

He smiled a bit as he yawned, the last test done. He stood to find Marie and share the good news when he realized that he didn't hear her speaking anymore.

"Marie?" he called out into the empty lab.

Fear spiked through him when he realized that he couldn't sense her wavelength anywhere near him. He was out the door and searching for her a moment later.


He found her eye patch a few yards past the door of the lab, and a dozen yards beyond that he found one of her boots. He darted in that direction and nearly tripped about a hundred feet later when he almost missed seeing the boot that lay in his path.

As he bent to pick it up, sliding it under his arm with the other, he heard her laughter. His head jerked up and he finally focused on her wavelength. He rushed towards her, realizing belatedly that she had been moving away from Death City and into the surrounding desert.

He found her sitting with her feet dangling over a ledge, a grin on her face as she stared up and into the setting sun.

"It's beautiful," she whispered as he moved cautiously to her.

"You would be able to see more of the sky from the roof of the lab," Stein said slowly.

"Where's the fun in that? Stuffed up in one place, only able to see walls. Trapped. They'll eat us up if we stay." Her head craned over her shoulder, exposing the fading scars on her throat. "You told me that."

"I was wrong." Stein tried reasoning with her as he moved to sit beside her. He kept his movements slow as he slipped an arm around her waist, the worry plain on his face as he glanced down over the edge.

She just laughed.

"Marie?"

The smile fell from her face and she looked out over the expanse of desert. "Don't touch me. He won't like it."

"I'm right here, Marie." Stein tightened his grip on the death scythe's waist.

"Let me go." Her features contorted in hatred. "You're pretending to be Him, but He'll cut you into tiny shreds when He finds out that you've touched me."

Her shoes and eye patch fell to the ground as his other arm moved, his hand catching her chin and forcing the woman to look at him.

"I. Am. Right. Here."

She spit in his face. He let it roll down his cheek, not releasing the woman from his grip. He stood in a smooth movement, tugging her up with him and into his arms.

She screamed and flailed. The movement through his balance off slightly and he stumbled, forcing himself to step towards the lab and not the ledge.

The way that she had intentionally lunged as he picked her up.

"I'll tell on you!" she screamed out as he managed to move them both away from the edge. "I'll tell Him and He'll give me your heart!"

Tears streamed down her face as she broke into laughter. "He'll give me whatever I want you know," she said a bit more calmly. "He loves me. He told me so. He said that He'd give me his heart. But He won't, not really. He promised to not leave me and if He really did give me His heart He'd have to leave me."

Giggles flitted from her as she stopped struggling in Stein's arms.

"I did promise, didn't I?" Stein asked suddenly and he heard her quiet intake of breath. He forced a smile across his features and was rewarded by one of hers. "I'll make you another promise."

"Anything?" she asked with childlike wonder as he sat her down.

"Not anything. Something important." His gaze met hers and held it and she grinned even wider.

"What is it?!" she clapped her hands as she asked and he placed his hands on her shoulders to get her to stop.

She stood still, waiting on his answer as his hand slipped into the pocket of his lab coat and he stepped closer to her. He knew what she wanted, vague memories of the action still in his mind. He nuzzled against the scar on her throat, and felt her arms wrap around his neck. A moment later the hypodermic slid into her, his thumb depressing the plunger.

"I'll always catch you."


Marie opened her eyes sometime later, her hand immediately moving to cover her left eye. It didn't move and she took a deep breath as she realized that her arms and legs were loosely restrained.

"Marie?"

She turned her head towards Stein's questioning voice.

"Fr-Franken? Why am I tied down? Where's my eye patch?"

"Tell me your name."

"Marie Mjolnir."

"Who was the last person you were talking to on the phone?"

"Azusa… no, Spirit. I had called and asked him to go ahead and tell Maka."

Stein's hands undid the first restraint. "What was the last thing you said to him?"

"I… I'm not sure…" Marie's brow furrowed as he undid the other restraints, his long body arching over hers to reach her other arm.

"Try to remember," he coaxed her.

"He said… 'How's he taking it?' and I said… I said…" the woman trailed off. "I don't remember."

Stein just nodded. "You're not to leave the lab for the next few days, Marie. I'll call and cancel our classes."

She sat up and grabbed his lab coat as he walked past her. "At least tell me why, Franken!"

He stopped and met her eye, and he didn't have to. She knew then what had happened. Tears streamed down her cheek as it clicked.

"How?" she managed to get out.

A moment later his arms were wrapped loosely around her. "Training is also over, Marie. It is my hypothesis that you're still sensitive to Madness… and resonating with me brings you too close to it."


A/N: Trying to get everything updated. Thanks for your patience! I don't own Soul Eater.