Title: Past Hauntings

Rating: T

By: ToastWeaselofDOOM

Summary: AU. Franken Stein has everything. A wonderful wife, a house, and a respectable job. But this could all change when a mistake he made fifteen years ago comes back to haunt him.

Warning: As this is an AU, character's might be a tad OOC in order to fit into society and general living. I've tried to fit their abilities into the story best as I could, but there is always a few people who freak over these things, so I warn you now. I repeated, CHARACTERS MIGHT BE A BIT OOC. This also contains a bunch of my favourite pairings including (but not limited to) SteinMarie, SteinMedusa, SoulMaka, MarieSteinMedusa, etc etc. My beta(s) are very busy and can't beta everything on time all the time, so sometimes chapters will be published unbeta'd.

If you have a problem with one or more of these pairings, or with it the characters being OOC, or with it not being beta'd, I'm implore you, DO NOT FLAME ME IF YOU CONTINUE ON AND READ THIS. It will have been your fault for not reading my warnings and A/N before you read. Thank you! ^^

A/N: Torturing Kid along with nerdy D&D bags in comments made by Kit-beta aside, I post two more chapters at once, 'CAUSE IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! I GIVE YOU GUYS A GIFT. ....wait, isn't it supposed to go the other way around? Oh well. Enjoy.

THIS CHAPTER WAS BETA'D by ~Desert(dot)Moon. Luffs, hun!

Chapter 11

-Two Days Later, Monday-

"Chrona. Hey, sweetheart, it's time to get up. Chrona." The young girl rolled over and muttered something incoherent. "Chrona." Marie touched her shoulder lightly, and the girl shot up.

"M-M-Miss Marie!" she stuttered. "W-what—?"

"It's time to get up," Marie replied. "School starts for you today. Wakey, wakey, sweetheart. Hop in the shower, change, and there'll be food waiting for you when you come into the kitchen, alright?"

Chrona nodded sleepily and swung her legs out of bed. A quick shower later, she changed into the clothes Marie had bought her the day before. She poked her head into the hallway; determining that no one was in sight, she dashed across the hallway.

Once in the bedroom she slinked into the connecting bathroom; it didn't take long before she found what she was looking for. Razorblades. A whole bagful of disposable razorblades. A jackpot in her eyes. She stole one from the open bag and slid it into the pocket of her jeans, then raced back to her room.

She sat on the bed, reveling in the success of her mission and willing her heart rate back to normal. Once she was certain she was calmed down, she went down the hallway to the main room. Her father was sitting at the counter, reading the morning paper before he went to work. Marie was at the stove, and turned around with a pot full of food just as Chrona came in.

"Good morning, Chrona~!" Marie sang as she put food onto three plates. "Perfect timing, breakfast is ready!" Chrona nodded silently and sat down at the counter next to her father.

He closed his paper and looked at her critically. "Good morning."

"G-Good morning, St-Stein-hakase," the girl stuttered. She was glad of the distraction from the plate of food that Marie placed in front of her with a cup of milk. "Th-Thank you, Miss Marie . . ."

Marie smiled at Chrona and went to refill Stein's coffee mug, then put it and a plate of breakfast in front of her husband. "Remember, when we're at school it's 'Marie-sensei,' alright?"

The girl nodded and began to eat slowly. After she was done, she went to her room until Marie came and told her it was time to go. Stein was getting ready to go as well; he shared a kiss with Marie and said goodbye to his daughter before taking his thermos of coffee and heading off to work.

The car ride to the school was silent. Chrona sat in the front passenger seat, and constantly fiddled with the handle of the new bag that Marie had bought her the day before as well. Sunday had been a day of shopping, for both clothes and school supplies for Chrona. The girl was glad about the new clothes, because she had always hated that dress her mother had made her wear. Now she was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a black zip-up hoodie. She thought it suited her better than the dress, and it certainly fit Ragnorak better.

"So, Chrona," Marie said as she drove, "are you excited for your first day?"

The lavender-haired girl shrugged.

"I'll take you to the front office," the woman continued on. "You'll get your schedule there, and then you'll go to class, 'kay?"

Chrona nodded, fidgeting with the sleeves of her hoodie. Marie noticed this but chose not to comment, even though she wanted to. The rest of the ride was dead silent, with only the sound of the engine to break the still. As they pulled into the parking lot of Shibusen, Chrona's eyes grew wide.

The school was multiple stories tall and covered with red spikes, comical white skulls, and many windows. The teenager idly noted that the main doors were automatic, sliding open as she followed Marie inside. Chrona's eyes grew wider still when she saw the inside of the building.

The inside of the school almost looked like the interior of a modern castle. Bright pale yellow walls held candles in golden candlesticks. Wooden beam were purposefully exposed and created a highly-arched ceiling; many staircasesreached to the upper levels. The wide hallways were crowded with students, and Chrona's anxiety levels jumped a few notches.

"Bit overwhelming, huh?" Marie asked with a gentle smile. The girl nodded wordlessly. "That was my reaction when I first came here. Follow me to the office."

Chrona trailed after her father's wife, doing her best to stay out of everyone's way. Marie led her into the office, and signed in before talking to a woman with dark skin and braided hair. The woman smiled at Chrona and beckoned her over to a computer. The girl wordlessly followed her and the woman started compiling Chrona's schedule.

After asking many questions about the classes she'd had at her old school, the woman finally finished. She clicked print, and several minutes later gave Chrona her schedule, a slip to be signed by all of her teachers, and a several-page school map. During this, Marie had disappeared to supervise her homeroom.

"Do you think you can find your homeroom by yourself?" the woman asked Chrona.

The girl didn't think she could, but found herself nodding anyway. The woman smiled. "Well then, welcome to Shibusen High School."

When Chrona stepped from the office into the hallway, she was immediately overwhelmed. This school was so much bigger than the one she attended in Los Angeles, and it was full of people. They all dressed in the weirdest styles, and many had odd hair colors. The girl realized with a jolt that her weird purple-pink hair color would be right at home among the greens, pinks, and blues of her classmates.

However, this fact gave her little comfort. Her anxiety levels rose steadily from being surrounded by so many people, and they were about to spill over when—"Chrona!"

The girl's head snapped up and she turned to see Maka running towards her. The blonde was wearing a plaid mini-skirt and black boots, much different from the jeans and t-shirt she had come to Stein's house in. A pale yellow sweater-vest, a dress shirt, and a green-and-silver tie peeked out from under the long-sleeved coat Maka wore. A messenger bag was slung over her shoulder, and she was grinning.

"Chrona, hey!" Maka drew level with her and went to hug Chrona, but then remembered the other teenager's dislike of being touched physically.

"M-Maka . . . h-hi . . ."

"Lost?" the blonde asked her. Chrona nodded hesitantly. "That's okay. Shibusen's a confusing place for newcomers. I'll show you around, but first, lemme introduce you to my friends!" Maka took Chrona by the hand and guided her through the throng of students and up several flights of stairs.

She dragged the new student into a classroom and towards a group of kids. The fellow teenagers stopped in their conversations and looked at them. Chrona's heartbeat ran to beat the band and her hands were clammy as Maka said,

"Hey, guys! This is Chrona, that girl I found a few months ago!" The group murmured as Maka began introductions. "Alright, the guy with the white hair is Soul—"

"Yo."

"—Tsubaki is the tall girl with the black hair—"

"Hi, it's nice to meet you."

"—the boy with blue hair is Black*Star—"

"Yahoo! I'm gonna surpass God!" Chrona flinched. This boy was loud.

"—the boy with the black hair with stripes is Death the Kid—" The teenager's golden eyes were twitching. "—the blondes over there are Liz and Patti, Liz is the older of the two—"

Liz waved with her nail file and Patti giggled. "Hiya!"

"—the girl with pink hair is Kim and the black-haired girl next to her is her best friend, Jackie—"

"Nice to meet you," the two girls chorused.

"—the boy with the mini dreads and cornrows is Kilik—" He greeted her the way Soul had. "—the boy with sunglasses is Harver—" Silence. "—and the guy with the twin spikes and glasses is Ox. Everyone, this is Chrona. She's staying with Marie-sensei and her husband a while."

Chrona fidgeted under their scrutiny. One of the boys, the one with the black hair with stripes, stared at her intently. Finally he stepped up to her.

"Chrona, right?" His voice was cool and formal; she nodded hesitantly. "You are wonderfully symmetrical, from your shoes to your hoodie. However, there is one problem . . . your hair. It is horrible and asymmetrical and, and, and please let me cut your hair so you may be symmetrical! Please, please!" The teenager was on his knees, begging.

"I'll do anything!" Kid continued. "Just let me cut your—hrk!!!" Maka had grabbed the back of his blazer jacket and tugged him back to his feet.

"Give it a rest, Kid," Maka told him as the boy hurriedly readjusted his blazer.

"B-But, Maka! Her hair is completely asymmetrical! It's trashy, it's, it's—"

"You're asymmetrical."

Kid hit the tiled floor as if an air raid siren had sounded. He beat the ground with his fist and sobbed, "I'm worthless scum! Dammit . . . Depressed . . . die." Black*Star sat on the weeping boy while Liz and Patti did their best to cheer him up.

"I-Is he okay?" Chrona murmured.

"He's fine," Maka replied. "He does this all the time." Chrona nodded as the Thompson sisters assured Kid that it wasn't the end of the world.

"What's your schedule like?" Maka asked Chrona while Kid finally got up from the floor. The lavender-haired girl wordlessly passed her schedule to Maka, who took it and looked it over.

While Maka scanned her schedule, eyes moving rapid-fire across the page, Chrona looked around the room. Kid was yelling at Black*Star, who was yelling back, and Tsubaki was trying to quiet the two boys down. Liz had gone back to filing her nails, Patti was grinning like a madman. Kim and Jackie were talking, and Ox was hovering near them, eyeing Kim like a lovesick puppy. Soul and Kilik were conversing also, while Harver stood near them, reading.

Chrona studied Soul. She had never seen hair that white before, or teeth that sharp, or irises that shade of blood red. He was a curiosity, an oddity. She wanted to know more. Inside her, Ragnorak stirred.

"Cut him open, let's see his blood!" the personality ordered her. "Let me take over, I'll do it!"

'No, go away!'

"Just for a little while!"

"No!" Her voice was quiet but forceful. Ragnorak disappeared into her subconscious.

"What was that, Chrona?" Maka had heard. "Something wrong?"

"N-No, nothing wrong!"

"Sure?"

"Yeah . . ."

"Alright." Maka went back to reading and Chrona looked back at Soul. He was looking straight at her. When their eyes connected, he frowned and glared at her. His eyes seemed to say, 'Why does Maka like a weirdo like you?' The pink-haired teen broke the eye contact and stared at the floor.

"You're in Basic Geometry?" Maka asked. Chrona nodded. "You have the same Basic Geometry class as Black*Star, and a bunch of classes with the rest of us. Awesome, I can show you around!"

"Y-You'd do that?"

"Yeah, sure!"

"Th-Thank you . . ." Maka smiled at her and looked at the clock.

"Oh, hey, we should get to homeroom. You're in my homeroom, cool, huh?" Maka smiled and picked up her bag. "Follow me. Hey, Soul, let's go!"

Soul grumbledand said goodbye to Kilik, then grabbed Black*Star's collar and hauled him after Maka. Chrona followed close behind and Soul glared at her. Chrona shivered and walked quickly to catch up to Maka.

A/N # 2: Kid. He's fun as hell to torture. Just a little back thing, Chrona's got a low C in Basic Geometry. Black*Star has a D. 8D ...and a possible conflict brewing? FIND OUT.

P.S. Chapters 11 & 12 were one giant chapter but I cut them in half because of the size, so they a bit short. GOMEN. Dx