Hello everybody. Here's chapter 12. Please enjoy.


Death the Kid, Liz, Marie, Patty and Stein were all going over everything that had occurred. The twins were still in the hospital while the rest were in Kid's living room. Thank heavens for pocket mirrors.

"So you mean to tell me that Soul has conveniently lost his memories…" Liz's annoyance was obvious.

"According to the doctors he has a case of dissociative amnesia." Kid hunched forward in thought.

"And that is?" Patty questioned with a raised hand and winced at the fast motion.

"When Soul fell down the stairs, his head hit the concrete with so much force that he suffered-"

"Suffered- Pft- don't make me laugh." Patty interjected.

"...from a brain bleed. The pressure from the brain bleed and the initial trauma caused him to lose a significant portion of his memories. From a brief examination of Soul it seems that he doesn't remember anything beyond when he was eleven years old." Stein explained. In his arms was his precious child.

"So then what about Soul's punishment?" Liz slammed her fists into her lap. "Is he really going to get away scot-free just because he forgot what he did?"

"No but we first need to figure out if his condition is going to be permanent or if its temporary." Kid sighed. Why couldn't anything just be easy…

"I say we need to punish him real good! Like we could cut off his legs and hands and put him in a ditch and watch as he tries to climb out or… or…" Patty sounded down right terrifying with her happy go lucky words paired with her menacing words. Everyone gave her a look and Marie chose to be the one to change the subject.

"What about Maka?" Liz relaxing into her seat in the hospital was barely heard through the phone.

Maka woke up upstairs in the Death Mansion. She didn't recognize the room but based on the plain white walls with gray and black accents. She'd seen the same wall styles in the guest room when she'd stay over for slumber parties with the twins. Her head was aching. Her body was sore and she saw that once again she'd had an episode. Her clothes were torn.

The bandages on Maka's body brought back memories of what had happened. She'd hurt Marie, Stein and… Kid… How would she ever apologize? Did she deserve to be forgiven?

Maka couldn't let herself think about what could happen. She needed to apologize. She left the room and, after having stopped in the bathroom, she made her way down stairs.

"...so…Soul's punishment…" Maka heard snippets of the conversation that was happening down the hall and around the corner from where she stood. Maka was quiet as she slowly approached the corner. With each step Maka's fear grew and grew.

"...we could cut off his legs and hands and put him in a ditch and watch as he tries to climb out or… or…" Maka swallowed. They were discussing Soul's punishment. All he'd done was hit Maka and here Patty was talking about dismemberment and humiliation. What would happen to Maka since she'd injured not only Stein and Marie but Kid as well.

"What about Maka?" Liz's voice said what Maka was fearing was next. She couldn't bare to hear this. Any punishment they deemed was necessary for her crimes she'd take it but she needed time. She didn't want to know until it was time.

Maka turned tail and ran. She booked it to the widow she knew was broken and she leapt through it. She braced herself for impact and when she hit the ground she rolled so all that momentum wouldn't be abruptly halted.

"I'll be back… I just need some time…" Maka told herself as she ran through the city and went for the border.

Psilocybin reclined in her cave outside the city limit. Though the curse she'd intended to place on Maka didn't not go as she had originally planned, it had been successful in getting her closer to her goal. Her link to Maka was still in place so when Maka awoke, from the dark realm that was created on the moon to hold Azura prisoner, she knew. The first time she hadn't completely severed her connection so she immediately was pulled back thanks to an outside force that Psilocybin could not place. The second time however the separation was successful. She woke in a neutral state so Psilocybin helped stimulate her emotions just a tad bit.

"Pensées noires et méfiance. Détresse et panique. Fini ton espoir, alors noie-toi dans ta peur." [Dark thoughts and mistrust. Distress and panic. Gone is your hope, so drown in your fear.] Psilocybin blew her enchanting dust into the air around her and her magic encouraged the wind to guide it to Maka. She couldn't wait for the events to come.

Liz eased herself into a position that would be as comfortable as she could in the hospital. "We can't just leave her in this state." Liz was worried for her friend and wondered when she'd wake up.

"We will provide her with the aid and support she will require." Kid stated matter-of-factly. "We will have her move in here with us since her apartment will only cause her stress by bringing up uncomfortable memories for her." Kid felt that this was obvious and was the only choice as it would keep her close to him and benefit her.

Stein hummed in approval that this was a wise choice.

"Let me know if I can be of any aid. Maka will need all of our support." Marie said as she recalled the fight that Kaori and Spirit had when they reported that they were going to head to the school and have a cell prepared in the dungeon for Soul. All because Spirit had called his ex-wife the love of his life, Kaori began to insult the compassionate and emotional nature behind her ex. She goes on about how he was the reason she left and that, once the problem with Soul was over, she'd quickly leave again. He brings up that right now Maka needed the two of them. This hadn't been received well as she stood her position.

Long story short, to get away from Spirit, she was going to leave as soon as Soul's punishment was announced. She was not going to stay and help her daughter through what was happening and she wouldn't listen to reason. Marie tried. She had interrupted the fighting parents and was shouted at in return. She was told by Maka's mother to "butt out" of their relationship and that she knew what her daughter needed to get past this, and it wasn't her, she believed that Maka needed "to grow up and stop acting like a child".

Marie had no clue why Maka held on to the idea that it was her father keeping her mother away. It was Kaori alone who caused the separation of the pair. This was true. Marie wasn't aware of it but she had put the pin smack-dab in the center of the X.

Maka had been on a tour of DWMA and Spirit had immediately turned her around and told her to go to the nurse's office and tell her that he was on his way to her. She skipped back to the nurse's office that was just down the hall. She hadn't seen the woman who had been walking down the hall, who'd been clutching her head, fall unconscious in the otherwise empty hall before being told to go to the nurse. Her father entered the office minutes later with the no longer passed out woman in his arms. Her face was flushed and young Maka saw the blush.

"Maka-dear. Daddy's sorry but we have to end the tour just a tad bit early darling, but don't worry." Spirit had set the woman on the bed furthest from his daughter then crouched in front of Maka. "We'll be back first thing in the morning." His hand cupped his young daughter's cheek. "Daddy just has some very important business to take care of." Maka turned and looked at the girl he'd set on one of the beds and back at Spirit.

"Okay!" Maka smiled brightly which caused her father to smile like a fool from how cute she was.

"Why don't you go tell Mommy that Daddy is going to be a lil-" Spirit emphasized lil with his index finger and thumb close together. "Late." Maka nodded her head excitedly and hopped out of her seat. She had been running towards the door when Spirit called out to her. "Doesn't Daddy get a goodbye hug from Maka?" Spirit pouted.

"Oops!" Maka giggled. "Sorry papa!" She threw her arms around her dad then left to go home her mother was shocked to see Maka had come home alone.

"Honey, where's your father?" Kaori asked not even caring to hide the impatient tone in her voice.

"Something came up at the school." Maka was rummaging through a drawer. "A lady needed his-" She was struggling to get into a jammed drawer. "...why is this drawer jammed…" Maka backtracked on her previous thought. "She needed his help. I think she was sick. Her face was all red and dad needed to carry her to the nurse's office." Maka saw nothing wrong with what happened but Kaori must have because the pen in her hand snapped in half.

"Oh really?" The tone was full of accusation that went unnoticed by Maka who'd finally got that jammed drawer open.

"...why would someone put the box in like that… It fits perfectly if it's rotated…" Maka rotated the box then set back to her task. "Yeah. He'd probably be late."

"Okay sweetheart. Why don't you go to your room? I'll call you down when it's time for dinner." Kaori hadn't even tried to feign being cheerful. She was pissed. She just knew that there was more to it.

When her husband came home Kaori gave it to him. She had been sitting at the kitchen table with one leg propped in the other. Each second that passed it bounced just a little. The lingering scent of perfume came off of him. It was not one of her perfumes and it wasn't a cheap scent either.

"So I heard you held a woman today." Kaori immediately got to the point as her husband had been coming over to place a kiss on her cheek. She turned her face away.

"Yeah poor girl passed out in the halls of DWMA. Turns out-"

"You let our daughter see you while you were with your whore." Spirit blinked in confusion.

"What?"

"How could you do that to me? You're lucky our daughter is too innocent to know what it was but I'm not. I've suspected it for a while now." Kaori rose from her seat. Her finger was jabbing at him with each syllable. "Do you think I'd let you just waltz in here after being with your pricey slut?"

"Honey?" Spirit placed his hands on his wife's shoulders. "I'd never cheat on you. You're the love of my life." His words fell on deaf ears and the only response he got was a massive, soul wavelength fueled slap in the face. The skin had cut open and was already rising to be a near perfect copy of Kaori's hand but he didn't pay it any mind.

"I can't stand you!" She shouted. At this point Maka had heard shouting over the music she had been listening to in her room. She'd snuck down stairs to find out what all the noise was about. "If you want to be with your WHORES so much then I'm leaving. I'll let you hang with them as much as you want." Spirit came stuttering behind her.

"H-Hon-Honey?!" Spirit reached for her hand. She smacked his hand away. The Meister-Weapon relationship they held alongside their marriage caused his hand to immediately well-up too. "I've never cheated on you. Please believe me." Not a lie came out of his mouth. In all the years they'd been married had he cheated. Hell, not even at school before they'd become official. She had been his first girlfriend,and he never looked at another woman in any manner close to how he looked at her. Yes he had female friends but that's all they were. Friends.

They'd gotten to the corner where Maka had been watching the tail end of the argument. "Maka! Darling, please go to your room." Spirit didn't want their daughter to see this. No child should see their parents fighting one another. "Mommy and Daddy just need to talk about grown up business okay honey?" His hand cupped her cheek and he was eye level with his daughter. He held back the wince from the pain he felt when his hand touched his daughter.

"No." Kaori stated. "Mommy and Daddy aren't going to discuss anything. Instead, Mommy and Daddy are going to get a divorce and it's all Daddy's fault." Kaori would not discuss a single thing. "Maka, Mommy loves you, but your Daddy doesn't seem to love Mommy enough to be loyal and not cheat with every big breasted Bimbo he comes across." Kaori turned away and went to what was her room. She packed her things, tossed his out the window, then left the house.

Maka woke from a nightmare that plagued her since her mother had first left her father. Normally it started at the shadowed form of her parents fighting in the dining room but this time it was the whole day. She remembered it in vivid detail and remembered details that she never could remember.

Her dream even included the distant figure of the young woman who was swaying as she walked through the hall towards her. The sight of the woman beginning to fall then being whipped around so she never saw the impact of the woman and the floor. She could hear the tone in her mother's voice when she first told her about the lady. And worst of all she remembered the bleeding handprint on her father's face and the bruising of her father's hand that would last for a full year after the divorse finalized. It had all been her fault.