Hey people! It seems like I always update fast on the weekends, so here's to the weekend! Woot! Just a heads up, the whole first part of this chapter is a flashback, so that's why it's in first-person and such. I didn't want to italicize it thought because that would confuse you guys and make you think it was a dream, which it's not. So a lot happens in this chapter, so get ready to dive into a lot of problems and tension! Should be fun. Enjoy!

Chapter 13

I was two when my little sister entered this world. Heretsu was six and not exactly excited about having two little sisters. Despite that, I was thrilled. I'd have a baby sister to adore and play with all the time.

But Kage wasn't the kind of little sister I had expected.

At first, she and I were the best of friends. We did everything together; played, ate, teased our brother… just about anything possible, we did with each other.

I always watched out for her and made sure she didn't get picked on or hurt. In turn, she always looked up to me like I was an idol. We were as close as two sisters could be.

But one day, that all changed.

I'd just turned nine and Heretsu had just entered the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Both of our parents were Meisters, so it was no surprised that our brother would be one as well. Kage and I both admired him and his power since we weren't anything special. We might have been a little jealous, but we still had each other.

Not long after my birthday, I started to get these weird feelings. My insides felt like they were sparking, almost as if electricity was flowing through my body. Eventually it started to get so immense that it turned painful and I ran crying to my parents. Neither of them really knew what was wrong with me, causing the whole family to freak out.

And then it happened. Heretsu reached out and held my hand for comfort. As my hand wrapped around his, there was a strange flash of blue and the next thing I knew I had become a scythe.

I could remember exactly what they all looked like. Both my parents were in complete awe and amazement, finding it hard to believe that their daughter was a Weapon. Heretsu had been initially shocked, but I could remember that slow smirk he gave me as he realized that we were now a team. I'd expected Kage to be surprised too, but her expression was different. Yes, it was stunned, but there was a look of betrayal in her face, as if I'd left her.

After that, my parents had me train constantly with Heretsu in order to prepare me for my enrollment in the DWMA. He and I became closer than before and I actually started to tolerate how annoying he was, earning a respect for him since he was now my Meister.

Whenever we trained, Kage would sit in the living room and watch us through the blinds. She seemed almost jealous that she couldn't join, as if it were some sort of game. I didn't understand what there was to be jealous about – it was like working and it became tiresome after a while.

On her tenth birthday, she walked up to me and looked at me with solemn gray eyes.

"I want to wield you," she said, "I want to be your Meister."

Our whole family had looked at her like she was crazy, but I was bursting with happiness on the inside. Ever since I'd become a Weapon she'd grown distant from me and I'd missed her terribly. Now was the chance to be close again.

"Okay," I answered, "Let's go in the backyard and try!"

I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the backdoor, ignoring my parents' protests. I could remember thinking that Heretsu would be angry with me, thinking that I was trying to replace him. But when I saw his face, all I saw was overwhelming pity. And I had no idea why.

"Okay, I'm gonna transform now!" I told Kage, "Try to match your wavelength to mine so you can lift me!"

"Alright," she muttered.

I gave her a reassuring smile before the blue light washed over me, turning me into my scythe form. Kage stared at me for a moment as I lay on the grass, her eyes unblinking.

Slowly, she started toward me, a look in her face I'd never seen before. A mixture of determination and… something that looked like vengeance. Her small hands wrapped around my staff and she closed her eyes tightly.

Without my consent, a bolt of electricity charged through my staff and shocked my sister, sending her flying back. My parents called out to her worriedly and went over to make sure she was alright. Heretsu just sat on the porch, shaking his head.

When I changed back to my human form, Kage was in tears and my parents tried to comfort her.

"It's alright, sweetie," my mom said, "Evar's just special. Not anyone can wield her."

"She's just unique," my dad added, "You're not strong enough to handle her."

Little did my parents know that their words were adding fuel to a fire that would start out as a small flame, but eventually burn to a forest fire.

After that, my sister never spoke to me unless she had no other option. She'd watch me hatefully whenever Heretsu was using me, her eyes aglow with a newfound hatred.

Not long after that, something new happened to me. I had been sitting in my front yard, drawing on the sidewalk with some chalk. Kage and I had done it all the time when we were little, but that felt like it'd been ages ago. I'd decided to do it again, in hopes of winning back her love. It was to no avail.

But that wasn't what had struck me that day. As I drew, Heretsu came barreling down the street, yelling and complaining that he didn't want to die. He flew inside the house, leaving me wide-eyed and confused.

As I started to get up and go after him, I saw what had scared my brother senseless. It a boy, about my age or maybe a little older. He was wearing all white and had silvery-gray hair. His face looked completely emotionless.

I suddenly realized that he'd walked right up to me, causing me to gasp and jump to my feet.

"Does that kid live here?" he asked flatly.

I nodded weakly, biting my lip.

"Could you tell him that I was just kidding?" he asked, "He's not even worth the effort to dissect…"

Of course, I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about. But he had pretty olive eyes, so I decided to go with it.

"Sure," I replied weakly, "He's my brother… he's kind of an idiot."

"I noticed."

There was an awkward silence where we just stood there looking at each other.

In an attempt to break the awkwardness of the situation, I thrust my hand out, earning a quizzical look from the boy.

"I'm Evar," I said, "Evar Elektra."

The boy stared at my hand as if it was some foreign object. He warily took it and gave it a quick shake.

"You have pretty eyes!" I blurted for no apparent reason.

He knit his brows together as I jerked my hand away in embarrassment, my cheeks turning bright red.

"Thanks?" he said unsurely.

"Well, I gotta go!" I squeaked, "I'll go tell my brother what you said! Um, bye!"

With that, I darted inside my house, slamming the door behind me. I panted for a moment, trying to catch my breath. Wow, I had been stupid. What had made me say he had pretty eyes? It wasn't like he'd complimented me or anything. What was my problem?

"Hey, Evar."

I looked up and saw Heretsu standing there, his fists in his pockets.

"Did he give you any trouble?" he asked.

I caught my breath and shook my head rapidly.

"No, no, no! He told me to tell you that he was just kidding about what he said!"

Heretsu narrowed his eyes and walked up to me, placing his hand on my shoulder protectively.

"Stay away from him, okay?" he said sternly, "That guy's dangerous."

"B-b-but… he has pretty eyes…"

My brother had looked at me as if I were insane, but shook it off and told me not to see him.

That night, I stayed up and wrote poems about the mysterious boy. They weren't love poems really; they just described him in the way I saw him: mysterious, eerie, reserved, handsome…

When I woke up the next morning, all my poems had disappeared. I began to panic; if Heretsu saw them he'd kill me for not listening to him. Well I hadn't gone to see the boy, but he'd still be angry with me nonetheless.

I got up and went to see if Heretsu had stolen them, my heart starting to race. What if he showed them to my parents? I'd be dead.

When I entered the living room, I was mortified by what I saw. The fireplace was going, its flames licking at the chimney they were so high. And there was Kage, several pieces of papers in her hands. She was throwing them into the fire one at a time, watching as the paper crumbled and became black.

"My poems!" I wept.

Kage turned her head, surprised to see me standing there.

"They aren't very good, Sister," she said impassively, "And you just met this boy yesterday. You shouldn't devote yourself to someone like that. It's dangerous."

She threw the rest of the papers in the fire, my eyes watering as I watched the fire hungrily swallow all of my feelings.

I didn't tell my parents or Heretsu about it. I didn't want any of them to know about that boy. I didn't want to remember him. I completely erased him out of my mind, refusing to let my emotions control me like that again. It was dangerous.

Two years later, my life took a dramatic turn. I'd just enrolled in the DWMA and Heretsu had just graduated. I was looking forward to meeting all the other Weapons and the possibility of having a new Meister. I loved Heretsu, but now that he'd graduated I'd have to get my own permanent Meister.

But my hopes were shattered when my family discovered that Kage had run away. None of us knew why she left, or where she went. All she left us was a note that read:

I will be strong enough. I'm not going to stay in your shadow anymore. – Kage

My parents feared the worst and pulled me out of the DWMA, sending me with Heretsu to go find our sister and bring her back. We searched all over Death City, then the state and the country.

We never found her.

"Why are you here?" I demanded, "Why are you in my dream?"

Kage stiffened and leapt down from the tree, walking over to stand directly in front of me. We were roughly the same height, though she beat me by barely an inch.

"Because I know everything," she hissed, "The madness… it's seeping into you. Your dearly beloved is only making it worse."

"Stop calling him that!" I spat.

"Why deny the truth, big sister? Oh, I can see the madness in your eyes. It's delightful. You won't be able to handle it much longer."

I lashed my hand out and wrapped it around her throat, lifting her in the air. She merely smiled at me, her eyes staring into mine.

"Mmm, yes," she cackled, "The madness has poisoned you. You want to kill your baby sister. Oh, Evar, and I thought you loved me."

My eyes narrowed as I released my grip, allowing her to land delicately back on the ground.

"Perhaps you are strong enough to handle it," she murmured, "You're too good to kill your sister… mmm… but I'm not."

In a flash, the black part of her braid shot out and wrapped around my neck, hoisting me up several feet in the air. Without even looking I could tell it was a snake; I'd dealt with them enough to recognize them.

"You're the one who's been doing this!" I spat, "Making Stein see the snakes! And now me!"

A triumphant laugh escaped her lips as the snake lowered me slightly, bringing me closer to her face.

"No, darling sister," she sighed, "I'm actually not. You can thank my new friend for that. She hates you almost as much as I do."

"Who? What are you talking about?"

The snake moved quickly, bringing me up and slamming my back into the trunk of the cherry tree as hard as possible. Blood spurted from my mouth and trickled down my chin, staining my white shirt with drops of red poison.

"Oh no, look what I've done," Kage spat, "I went and stained that pretty face of yours with blood. I'm so sorry. Now Stein will never look at you the way you look at him."

I opened my mouth to speak, but the snake jerked me away quickly, bringing me back to Kage. My body trembled as I felt her rip the back of my shirt open, the fabric ripping louder than it should have.

"My, my, sister," she sighed, "He's already done his work. So many stitches! He must've cut you deep."

"He healed me!" I growled, "A kishin hurt me and he stitched the wound back up."

"Oh? How do you know he didn't play around in there? He loves dissection, doesn't he? How could he resist?"

"He wouldn't do that! He cares about me!"

The air became still. I couldn't even hear Kage breathing.

Instantly, I was thrown across the yard, gasping as I rolled on the ground. Once I stopped, I brought my head up and saw Kage heading toward me, the snake in her hair hissing at me.

"Stupid, stupid, Evar," she hissed, "You still think he cares about you?"

"I know he does," I said fiercely, "He cares for me as much as I care for him."

There was a blow to my stomach, causing me to lose my breath. Kage had somehow appeared right in front of me and kicked my abdomen with the spiky toe of her boot.

"He doesn't give a damn about you!" she shrieked, "You are nothing to him! You're meaningless crap!"

She kicked me again, this time right between my breasts, cracking the bone that resided there.

"You're nothing special!" she continued, "You're a meaningless pile of garbage! He'd trade you in an instant!"

"He would not!" I cried feebly.

I was losing so much blood… it was pouring out of my mouth and seeping out of my abdomen. I didn't know how much more I could take.

"You're shit!" Kage screeched, "Worthless shit! You deserve to rot in Hell! Nobody loves you and nobody ever will!"

Evar woke up to the sound of the coffee maker. She was lying on the couch, a blanket draped over her. What? She'd fallen asleep in bed… The clock on the table beside her read 2:21 A.M.

"Hey."

She looked over and saw Stein sitting at the computer, looking back at her with tired eyes.

"W-w-what?" she stammered.

"You were screaming and crying in your sleep," he explained as he stood up, "I'm surprised you didn't wake up Crona. I couldn't get you to wake up though, so I carried you in here. I've been working a few hours now in order to stay up so nothing happened to you. But you seem fine now."

Her heart fluttered. He'd been worried about her. He'd stayed up making sure that nothing horrible happened to her. He cared about her.

"I'm sorry for keeping you up," she murmured.

He grunted as he grabbed a mug of coffee, taking a long gulp.

"Don't worry about it," he said, "I just didn't want a repeat of the last time you had a nightmare."

He went over and sat beside her on the couch, offering her a sip of the coffee. She politely declined, allowing him to take another swig.

"Stein…"

The scientist looked at her curiously. Her head was bowed, her dark hair covering her face. He had no idea how to read her at that moment.

"Do you… care about me?" she asked as she looked up.

They stared for a long time, both of them silent. Evar started to panic. What if her dream had been real and Kage was right? Or the other dream, where he'd died after responding to this question…

"Of course I do," he said suddenly, breaking Evar from her thoughts, "That was a stupid question."

Evar's eyes got bigger than they ever had. He… he said… he'd said it.

"Well, I'm going back to sleep," Stein said flatly as he stood up, "Are you gonna be alright? If you want, I can sleep on the other couch so you're not alone."

She stared at him. He really did care about her. There was no denying it.

"No, no, that's okay," she said, "You should get to sleep in your own bed. I'll be fine."

Stein shrugged and finished off his coffee, saying goodnight before returning to his bedroom.

Evar smiled weakly and lay back down on the couch.

He cares about me… he really does…

Geez, I hope he doesn't think I'm a creep.

Evar had been unable to fall back asleep, afraid that the nightmares would return. She didn't want to bother Stein, but she didn't want to be alone either.

She cautiously tiptoed into his bedroom, shaking slightly with fear. He was off to the side and not in the middle like she'd expected; he had a lot of room after all, so why not use it?

Her breath was rushed as she nervously slid in the bed, trying her best not to wake him up.

"Evar?"

Damn it!

She went completely stiff at the sound of Stein's voice, her face flushing with embarrassment.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Um… I-I-I couldn't s-s-sleep and I-I-I j-just didn't w-w-want to b-be alone…"

At first he didn't respond, leaving Evar in a fit of anxiety. He probably thought she was a baby or a freak. Grown women didn't do this! It was ridiculous.

She let out a little squeak of surprise when Stein wrapped his arm around her, bringing her close to his body.

"My dad did this when I was scared," he answered, "It made me feel better. Now go to sleep."

Evar could hardly breathe. She was sleeping with Stein, being held by him… it felt so nice.

She snuggled closer to him, getting comfortable as she let out a content sigh. Her lids fell and she quickly drifted into sleep, without a care in the world.

Stein wrinkled his nose slightly. He wasn't exactly used to this, and it had been twenty years since he'd slept with anyone. But she seemed to feel a lot better, so he supposed he could put up with it. Plus, she was soft and warm, which felt kind of nice.

His lids fell as well and the two slept soundly the rest of the night, without one nightmare.

Patty: This dance is going to be so much fun! I can't wait!

Liz: Yeah, I'm sure it'll be something to remember.

Kid: Are you trying to suggest something?

Liz: ...No.

Kid: You're lying! I know it! Something's going to happen! Liz!

Liz: Patty...

Patty: Shut up, damn you!

Ha, so that's it for now! A lot to take in, huh? A whole past, a dream, and the actual present part of the story! Woo! So much in just one chapter! Well, hope you liked it. Reviews are appreciated, and so is constructive criticism! Love you all!