Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King, nor any of the characters from the original manga. I own myself and all of my characters, that including Sofia Faust, Hana Horutari, Team Potmos and Franky's Oversoul. Hiroyuki Takei owns Shaman King. I own the plot and rights to this fanfic.

Author's Note: AAH! It's almost coming to an end! AAH! Translations! 'Wie' means 'eh' and remember! Italics means a different language!

Ren flinched. Then he winced. His chest was hurting and something bright had splayed itself over his eyes. He let out a small groan of annoyance before opening his eyes. He found himself in one of the Patch hotel rooms, on a rather stiff futon and with the sun beaming down through one of the windows. 'What the hell?' He thought to himself. He went to sit up then quickly lied back down. "Aagh." He gritted out. His chest was hurting a LOT now.

He looked down, only to see his chest adorned with gauze wrapping. He blinked a few times. He furrowed his brows. When had THAT gotten there?

Oh, wait.

That was how.

Ren sighed, forcing himself to sit up properly. He propped his weight on his hands and lifted his upper body up. The left side of his chest flexed in pain, throbbing from the stab wound. He let out a breath, scratching gently at the gauze.

He had expected himself to die. His eyes dimmed. Tao Ren had thought he was going to die. Though why shouldn't he have? He'd been stabbed in the heart. Didn't that constitute as instant death? Ren leaned his head back. He should've felt rejoiced at the fact. He had survived and would be able to continue fighting. He should've felt SOMETHING. But honestly, Ren just didn't have it in himself to feel anything but depressed.

What did he do about Sofia?

Faust wandered into the room. His eyes widened at the sight of Ren sitting up. "Oh, you finally woke up wie?" He walked over and sat by Ren's futon. The Chinese teen nodded. "You're lucky, your heart and lungs were just barely grazed from the stab. If off by an inch, I doubt I'd be talking to you right now."

"Where's Sofia?" Faust blinked, then smiled kindly.

"How sweet. She stabs you, and the first thing you ask about when you wake up is how she is." Was Faust insulting him or complimenting him? Ren honestly couldn't tell with that look on his face. Maybe it was both. "No worries. She's in the hotel next door." Ren nodded in acknowledgment, averting his gaze. Faust arched a brow. "That's all you want to know?" Ren glanced back up. "I was expecting an army of questions." Ren glared.

"If you know I'm curious then why not just TELL me!" Faust smiled.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"Really?"

"Just. Tell. Me!" Faust paused, his smile fading. Ren drew his head back. The blonde sighed, folding his hands in his lap. The purplenette looked down. "I want to know, Faust." Faust closed his eyes with a nod.

"I know."

"Where is she!" Yoh, HoroHoro, Chocolove and Manta looked up. Jun marched onto the porch, fists clenched and eyes narrowed. Bailong dutifully followed behind, though his faced crossed with worry. "Where's Sofia?" The four boys' foreheads went blue with fear.

"Jun, calm down." Yoh said, holding his hands up defensively. The green-haired teenager scowled down at him and pushed passed them to walk inside. "Jun wait!"

"Leave me alone!" She shouted. HoroHoro went to rush in, but Bailong cut in front.

"Bailong, make sure she doesn't do anything too rash!" Yoh yelled.

The door shut on the four boys. Dead silence crept from within the room. Manta furrowed his brows. "You don't think she'd sick Bailong on Sofia, do you?" Yoh gulped down with a small shrug. HoroHoro and Chocolove were the same way. Manta bit his lip.

"I've never seen her that angry before." HoroHoro muttered. Finally, sound erupted.

"How could you!" Jun screamed. A loud SMACK came next, making the group flinch. "How could you do that to him!" Bailong called out at her, then the sounds of scraping and shuffling against the wooden floors were heard.

"Jun stop!" Came Bailong's voice. Finally, the door swung open with the jiang-si dragging Jun out of the room. He had his arms tight wrapped around her upper torso. "Stop this Jun and calm down!"

"Let me go!" The four boys stared incredulously as Bailong physically forced Jun down the street.

Faust bowed his head down. "To explain what happened the other day... I'll have to tell you a story that happened a few years ago. It happened a year or so after Eliza died. Sofia was eleven."

"Uugh, my head." Faust put a hand to his forehead, trying to cease the massive migraine starting up. He was leaning over three different journals, all from his ancestor; the original Faust. The almost-broken-but-couldn't-afford-anything-better lamp just barely lit up the pages, making Faust having to squint to read.

He hadn't slept properly in three months. This entire month he had spent most nights digging up graves at the cemetary. Last night he had done it in a rain storm. Obviously not the best idea, he'd been feeling faint and dizzy ever since he'd gotten home.

"Vatti..." Faust looked up clutching his head. Sofia scowled from the doorway, her eyes flinching gently. He could tell she was getting a migrane just being around him. He smiled innocently.

"What is it?"

"I'm getting sick from being in the room BESIDE you. Go lie down." She demanded. Faust sweat dropped before turning back to the books.

"Hold on, I'm almost done here." She traced her way over to him and grabbed his shoulder.

The two of them had been living in a small house in a forest, just a mile or so from the village of Burghausen, for the past four months. They'd lost their house when Faust had lost the will to do his job. Fortunately, the hut had been abandoned and with what little money they had, they bought a generator to keep some of the electricity going.

"Now, Vatti." She urged. Faust sighed, running a hand over the pounding forehead; that only made him dizzier. He doubted he'd get much sleep, but the prospect of lying down sounded invited. Faust flicked off the lamp, stood up and walked over to the bed. He felt faint just from walking. "Lie down and don't you dare get up before the sun is." Sofia threatened. Faust smiled snuggled against the pillow. She reminded him of Eliza.

Banging of wood sounded off in the old house. Faust and Sofia glanced up. There was aggravated knocking against the door.

"Open up, Faust!" Called an angry voice. Others joined in. At least a crowd of others."We know you're in there and we know what you've done!" Faust's eyes widened. The villagers. There was an angry mob of villagers at their door."Get out or we're coming in!" Sofia backed up, clinging to the chair by the desk.

"What do we do?" She hissed. "They'll kill you!" Faust quick got back to his feet, unfortunately, that worsened his dizziness. He stumbled back before tripping over one of his books. Faust fell to the floor, the overwhelming feeling of faint swept him. He blacked out.

"The villagers had found out I was digging up their family from their graves. I needed to, to practice the necromancy." Faust opened his eyes, flicking his thumbs with his hands in his lap. Ren leaned forward.

"What happened?" He asked. Faust smiled calmly.

"They were massacred." Ren's breath halted. No... no she couldn't have. "When I woke up finally, Sofia was sitting at my side shaking. Behind her were the bodies of the men from town, including skeletons that had fallen upon them." Faust paused. "She was drenched."

Ren let out a deep breath, slowly taking in the story; what Sofia had done; who she had killed; who she really was.

"What happened today was a glimpse of what happened then. The reason there's such a time lapse is because I quickly had Sofia medicated after that incident." The purplenette arched a brow in curiosity. "Sofia suffers from Mania, only in a... heightened form. Usually, patients go through a process of dropped emotions. When unmedicated, Sofia goes straight to the final symptom; psychotic mania. When that happens, she becomes a completely different person."

Faust lifted his head to face Ren. "What do you think of her now, Tao Ren?" The Chinese teen was silent. "What do you plan to do?"

"I'd like to THINK for two seconds without you interrupting first of all." Ren snapped, looking back down at his lap. Faust nodded, glancing away from the teenager. Ren chewed on the inside of his cheek. He really had no idea WHAT to think or do. All that kept going through his head were the words 'they were massacred'. He dipped his head down. He wanted to hear what Sofia had to say about this. He wanted to know what she thought about it.

Hell, he just wanted to see her.

"I want to talk to Sofia."