Heya everyone! I hope you enjoy this chapter. A can of worms is opened in this chapter so as a famous villain has said "BE PREPARED!"

...Here you go...

Maka was back in the dark nightmare realm. It was different this time as there was a light that pulled her away from the terribly pained screams and moans coming from the pit. She and the light were growing closer to one another but it wasn't just because she was walking towards it she noticed quickly. It didn't take Maka long to notice the chain like shape that was emitting the light. The horrid sound of whatever tortures the people in her dream were going through were something she'd rather deal with than whatever this chain meant to do. Maka barely spotted the pit in time to leap over it and its inhabitants. When her feet made contact with the inky black ground she was immediately running.

"Aka…" She heard the end of her name being called in the distance. "Maka…" As she got closer. She smiled. It had to be Crona. Maka made a b-line for the voice.

"Crona!" Maka called out for her friend. "I'm being chased!" She warned "Whatever it is it's gaining on me!". Looking back to check how far behind her the perusing object was led to Maka colliding with a person who suddenly appeared from the never-ending darkness.

"Well isn't that a shame." Maka looked up at the smirking Asura.

"No!" Maka gasped.

"Yes." He smirked.

"What are-" He shoved her forward and into the rapidly approaching chain. The chain went right through Maka's chest and itself into Asura's because of the step forward he had taken into Maka's previous spot.

A scream erupted from Maka's lips the moment the chain entered her and eventually died down as she slumped over. Her body began to convulse as spikes began to protrude from her body in an attempt to fight off the foreign object that was imbedded in her body.

...At the same time…

As Maka lay unconscious in the bed, Liz, Patty, Kid, her parents, Soul, Stein and Marie (and their newborn) were seated in seats which had been brought in once Stein and Marie had arrived. The doctors were standing outside so that they had privacy.

"Marie. Stein, tell me what occurred between you two and Maka. I am already aware that Soul had asked for your help with talking to Maka." Kid had his hands clasped in his lap and his thumbs pressed together with enough pressure that his knuckles were white. "I need to know specifics."

Marie and Stein looked between one another. Marie nodded at Stein as a signal for him to tell Kid what happened. She knew that Maka wouldn't be in trouble. Kid wouldn't punish her. He wasn't the kind of person who'd sentence his friends to death for an accident.

"... Soul had noticed Maka was acting strange since the battle with Asura and out of concern for her-" A scoff was earned from Patty who gave Soul a death glare which was deflected and reflected onto Soul by both Liz and Patty. The two remembered the results of what Soul had done to Maka just before she had left for their mission. Kid hissed at them to let Stein speak. "We got to the apartment and I had to knock her out. She tried to run. While she was unconscious we observed something that should be impossible-"

"You better not have dissected my little Maka!" An angry and frightened hiss escaped Spirit's lips only to earn a slap in the back of the head from his ex-wife.

Stein couldn't say he wasn't intrigued to say the least. He had been fighting the urge. He cranked his blot ad he ignored his friend. "When Maka came to we were able to get her to talk to us. The topic of what was happening was sore, but we got her talking ever so slightly, but she began to panic. She ran and I chased her but she released a soul pulse strong enough to knock me out."

"What was it that you and Marie saw when Maka was unconscious?" Kid asked pressing his thumbs together even tighter. He hated the idea of prying into Maka's private life but this needed to be handled and the doctors had no clue when she'd wake. "I need the specifics. The pulse she sent out was powerful enough that it went outside of the city limits. The Witch Council has noticed that some of the remaining members of the Witch Order have attempted to enter the city as a response. It was like a beacon."

"This is really something we should wait for Maka to wake up before talking about. She may want her privacy." Marie spoke up. She didn't like the idea of disobeying Kid, but this was not something they can just tell everyone.

"Marie…" Stein sighs. He knew why she said that, and agreed with her 100%, but in this situation they couldn't really say no to Kid. Could they? He is their boss, the new Lord Death, and they are meant to do as he says.

"No!" Marie puts her foot down. "It is not our place to release someone's medical or personal information without their permission. No offense Lord Death, but it'd be like if you had a birthmark shaped in an obscene figure or were born without an ear. Would you like us to tell someone without at least warning you beforehand?" Kid blinked.

"...No. I figure I would not." Kid cleared his throat first before adjusting his posture in the chair. He was aware of the reason she mentioned birthmarks. He had one but it wasn't in any crude shape it was just the location that could get him some flack if certain others were to find out.

"My apologies, Lord Death, but I feel that if we must tell you then it will only be Maka, her parents, you and us there and Maka can decide the rest. That's all I meant to say." Marie felt the need to correct her original statement.

"I understand." Kid looks towards Maka having felt her soul fluctuate momentarily. "Can either of you explain the reason Soul called you there?" He looked to the one mentioned and could see how antsy he was.

"Yes. Soul had come to me after one of our lessons last week and mentioned how Maka was acting strange. She was refusing to sleep and was going out late at night for hours with the excuse of walking around town." Stein answered he rubbed a gentle circle into Marie's back as he spoke. "Soul said she was being irrational and angry whenever they spoke." Stein added which earned another scoff, this time from Liz, and a middle finger, from Patty, to Soul.

"Maybe she was 'irrational' and angry… because of something you did." Liz directed at Soul. Kid was growing tired of these out of character interruptions from Liz.

"Liz. Patty." Kid warned. "Soul, tell me what happened and why you felt Stein and Marie were needed." Soul swallowed. Kid seemed more authoritative than he was a few minutes ago. Was he angry too? Soul couldn't tell and hoped it wasn't going to be directed at himself. His retelling of the events since THE battle were abridged to say the least. He altered it so he didn't sound like the ass he had been to Maka and when it came to the time he hurt Maka it was just a simple argument brought on by Maka.

"We had a rather bad fight just when she was getting ready for that out of town mission." Soul tried to hold back his still fresh anger from those events. He hadn't seen how he was in the wrong. "She came home in a rage. She somehow got it into her head that I had been cheating on her and she was acting crazy. When she came back she continued to go out late at night for runs to avoid sleeping. I got ti- worried so I asked Professor Stein and Marie to intervein. The next night I texted them when she went out and they came over." He had almost hit her again that night but they arrived fast enough to keep him from doing that. As Soul spoke something made the room's air feel heavier and thicker. Kid, Liz and Patty knew something was up with his statement. The only difference was Liz and Patty had proof.

"Bullshit!"

"Bullshit!" The twins said in unison.

At this point Kid was done with the outburst all together. "Liz. Patty. Is there something you'd like to share?" He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Maka's mother adjusted herself where she sat so she could hold Spirit by the collar of his shirt as she tried to rush towards Soul to confront him about the news to come out that he knew wasn't good. Spirit wanted to shake the young man by his shirt and get the truth out of him.

"Yeah we do!" Patty shouted but then covered her mouth as she remembered Maka was still unconscious. "He's lying through his, soon to be missing, teeth." Patty added pointing and jabbing her finger in Soul's direction. Soul eyed her and Liz with a mix of fear and anger as he sent them nonverbal threats with his gaze.

"When we went on that mission with Maka she had a bruise around her neck." Liz began.

Liz pulled out her pocket mirror to find a certain video in her gallery. "He choked her out!" Patty barked through gritted teeth.

"I did not!" Soul argued but Liz handing her mirror to Kid had him nervous. When the video started he just saw the three girls sitting at a diner table. The air in the room was growing thick for Soul as he found it was getting a little hard to breath. Their drinks were dropped off and soon it got to the point Maka spilt her drink on herself causing the make-up to bleed away from a part of the bruise. Kid's eye began to twitch with anger.

"Maka please tell us… Was it Soul? Did he do this to you?" The recording version of Liz's voice was heard by all of the occupants of the room who could hear.

Following Liz was video Maka with "I already handled it. It's nothing to worry about" and "I'm kind of tired. How about we wrap up our food and go back to the hotel?"

Soul began to wonder if he should start running or try and tough it out.

"I already handled it. It's nothing to worry about" Kid rewound the video. "I already handled it. It's nothing to worry about" Again. "I already handled it. It's nothing to worry about" With each rewind his anger grew, especially when he zoomed in and saw the way her skin was raised into the shape of a hand print around her neck. It was a textbook example of when one partner attacks another causing their souls to lash out at one another and causing added, lasting, physical damage.

"She didn't say that it was me." Soul countered but then Patty was across the room in a flash and pinned Soul to the wall by his collar. She gave him a few shakes so his head hit the wall. Hard.

"Were we finished. Wait till the presentations over douchebag." Patty slammed his head into the wall one more time before letting him go. This time a crack had formed, originating where the splatter of his blood was.

"Kid, there's more." Liz retrieved her mirror only to go to a private (locked) album in her gallery with photos of the wound around her neck and a video recording that began before Maka entered their hotel room before they departed the city where their mission was located. The video contained Maka coming into their room and them having to convince Maka into letting them document the injury. Her phone had been recording and she'd snapped pictures. Maka was not aware of the video.

"I got home from school and found Soul making out with Candy on the couch." Maka's face was crest fallen as she spoke. A wince was heard as Patty wiped off the makeup covering the bruise. Liz's mirror was in her lap pointed up towards Maka so Kid now had a upwards view of Maka and the stress written into her features. "We had thrown words back and forth. He tried claiming that it 'wasn't what it looked like'" Maka scoffed. A tear was on the edge of her eye. She took a deep breath then continued. "I went to my room and grabbed my things. He didn't want to let me leave. He blocked the hall way. I went to get past him and he grabbed me by my throat." Another wince.

"Patty be gentler please." Liz scolded.

"Sorry Maka." Patty's voice says as she starts wiping again but more careful.

"It's fine…" Maka seemed to be staring at the ground at nothing in particular. "He held my by my throat. To the wall. I couldn't breath. He… He let go so I… I ran." It was when Maka began to cry lightly that Kid paused the video and looked at Soul once again. Patty standing next to him like a guard dog ready to pounce if he made a move.

He looked back down at the screen when Liz scrolled to the next item. A picture of the cleaned off bruise. And another. Followed by six more images. The color of the bruise was hideous and the plateauing on her neck angered him. He stood and made his way to Soul who could feel Kid's anger envelope him.

"You mean to tell me that Maka lied then. That this bruise is not from you. And that the raising of said hand print." He brings the mirror's image closer to Soul's face. "That you did not do this to her?" His voice was raised and the wind in the room was stirred rather violently by his soul. The current didn't disturb the others in the room as much as it had Soul as the feeling of two waves crashing into either side of him began with it.

"I-"

"Do tell me… Is THAT what you mean to say?" Kids words were venom laced.

Soul's life may have only been spared in that moment by the heart wretching scream that was torn from Maka's throat. She began to convulsed as if she was having a seizure. Within a fraction of a second Kid and her parents were standing at her side as Liz and Patty held Soul in place as he nearly took the chance to run.

"I suggest stepping back" Stein warned as he held Marie and their child in his arms at a safe distance.