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Chapter 17

Soul's POV

'Maka?! That's maka?!' The girl standing in front of me was not the same maka I remembered from when we were younger. She had grown, and I don't just mean in height. Her long slender legs I used to love were just as long but were now delicately toned, her once small and flat frame now had heavenly curves on her hips and bust. Her long hair was no longer in pigtails it genitally flowed down to her mid-back. It was no longer a dusty ash blond, now it had more of a warm caramel bond tone to it and her bangs feathered over the left side of her face slightly obscuring one of her beautiful emerald green eyes.

She glanced at me but quickly turned away from me once she saw me staring at her. She looked back up to the man she was standing next to, "Dean...". He looked down at her and so much was being communicated between them in their silence. I hated the way she was looking at him, it was the way she used to look at me, with determination, understanding, faith, trust and affection?

Lord death who had been quiet gauging our responses finally spoke, "Maka, don't you think it's time he-" Maka quickly cut him off, "No! Please lord death, besides it is no longer up to me." 'Who was the he lord death spoke of? And time he what?' I had the sneaking suspicion that I was the only one out of the loop here.

"Please don't do this lord death, how would I be able to protect her and watch her back while she wields someone else?" I did not like the way this dean guy pulled maka closer to his side. But the guy did have a point, if she and I teamed up he would be dead weight.

Lord death slightly bounced in place, "I'm not breaking up your partnership with maka, Dean. You will be her primary partner, as soul pointed out he has gotten quite skilled fighting solo. The three of you will mainly be a resonance team, however, there may be times when she will need to wield him."

Lord death turned to look directly at maka, "So maka, will you reforge your partnership with soul for me?"

What was lord death thinking maka would never want to be partnered up with me again, not after what happened between us. She looked over at me but quickly turned away when she saw me looking her way.

She took a shaky breath, an old habit of hers, to help settle her self. "Lord death, if you remember our soul wavelengths fell out of sync. I almost caused others of my old team to get hurt because I was no longer able to wield him."

"I remember maka, however as I said before your team would not be going on missions until all three of you are able to resonate strongly with each other. If you accept to being soul's partner again, you and he will have to rebuild your connection like before."

"Your forgetting something important, lord death." Lord death tilted his head to the side. "Oh? What would that be maka?"

She took another deep breath, "How soul feels about this! I'm fairly certain that he would prefer not to reforge our partnership. And I would prefer not to be a burden." It was then that I realized she must be thinking about the last conversation we had, when I told her that we were a mistake... I was lost in our past. 'Did she think that I still hated her?' 'She must hate me, how can lord death think that she would ever let me protect her again.'

I didn't notice lord death speaking to me, until Kidd elbowed me. "As I was saying... Soul would you be willing to partner up with maka again? Or do you have concerns?" I was silent for a moment, I then walked straight up to maka. Dean stepped in front of her, "I Need to speak with maka, not you."

Dean was staring me down, refusing to move until maka spoke from behind him. "Dean, it's alright." Dean turned to look at her before moving to stand beside her, I couldn't help but the smirk that grew on my face. Even now that she is a weapon, maka is still the dominant one of the partnership.

Before we had both been about the same height, now if I wanted to make eye contact with her I had to lower my head slightly. "Maka... I leave this decision up to you, if you think we can make it work, if you think we can get past our past then I'm in." Dean was holding her hand, I didn't like how her fingers were interlaced with his.

She was staring up at me with her wide green eyes, I would have gotten lost in her eyes had lord death not chosen that moment to draw her attention away from me. I reluctantly backed away from her while lord death spoke. "So maka, it seems the choice is yours... can you do this for us?"

Maka squared her shoulders, "As long as we are able to resonate, I will do it." I released the breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

"Oh I am very pleased to hear that maka, soul. We will talk in a bit about your training schedule."

Quinn's POV

I was sitting outside the school on the steps relaxing, or at least trying to. "Quinn! Quinn?!" I shot up and took off in the direction I heard Rose's voice come from. I could sense that something dark and wrong was coming from the same direction that roses scream had.

I burst through a set of double doors that lead to a long balcony. "Mia!? Rose!?" Rose and was wielding mia, but their resonance was to weak to do much good against the 2 pre-kishians they were trying to fight off. On the ground behind rose was a girl with short light brown hair, and a boy with darker brown hair, and dirty red eyes. The boy was holding the girl protectively and trying to fend off an attack from yet another kishin.

"Shit!" I ran up to Kishin that had the kid on the ground pinned down. I launched it a good several feet away with a solid kick. "Can you stand?" I called out to the boy, behind me. "Yea, aren't you going to need help?"

I shook my head, "None that you can give me right now, take that girl with you and get my mom and her partner in the death room, her name is maka albarn, I can hold them off until then." The boy hesitated while I turned my arm into a blade and cut the kishin I had kicked in half. "Just go kid!" After another second he grabbed the girl and ran off toward the death room.

I swallowed the red soul and then turned to the kishins rose was fighting. "Rose duck!" She was busy fending off the two kishins in front of her that she didn't see or sense the one that came up behind her. She got flung across the balcony, I was barley able to catch her before we both got hurled into the wall. I smashed the back of my head against the wall, and she was out cold, but I don't think she was hurt. "Mia take rose inside, now!"

"Get real quinn, I can help you our resonance is stronger than mine with rose." She was still in her weapon form, I picked her up and shot the kishin that was blocking the door with an arrow made with my soul wavelength. "There you helped me! Now go, I need you to get rose help and I need you to get to safety mia." She started to protest with me but I cut her off. "Mia that guy that was here is getting me help. But I can't fight when I'm worried about you and rose. Now go!" She grabbed rose and ran inside. "Finally."

From what I could tell there was only the two kishins in front of me and the one still lying in wait. "Now then, why don't we get your friend over there to come out and join the party." Both of the pre-kishins that were in front of me, hissed at me the first one launched its self at me I dodged and stabbed it in the shoulder with my blade. I had been trying to cut it's neck but he was more skilled than his friends, and he dodged the worst of my attack.

I was to busy exchanging blows with the piece of shit in front of me that I wasn't able to dodge the attack from behind. I got knocked into the wall again, "Damn it I am not going to let you corner me!" I shouted. Before he could make a grab for my neck, I brought my knee up jabbed it right into his gut. He only stumbled for a moment but it was long enough for me to get my blade around his neck and finish him off.

I turned my attention to the next kishin, he started to charge at me. My head was killing me but I prepared myself to dodge, or block it's attack. This Kisins fingers were like blades, and he was swinging his arms wildly trying to strike at me how ever he could. I blocked with my right arm but he cut up my shoulder a little bit before I was able to stab him in the stomach with my other bladed hand.

I was not looking forward to fighting this last kishin, He started to charge at me when he saw I had taken down yet another kishin. Then all of a sudden he stopped in his tracks, out of nowhere a brilliantly bright silver scythe was torn through his chest. Soon all that was left of him was a floating red soul.

I slide down the wall to sit down, My mom materialized beside me from her weapon form. "Quinn! Are you alright? What happened?" She was frantic, although I can't say I could blame her I was the same way when I heard rose scream.

"I'm alright mom really, How is rose? and that other girl? And as for what happened I would like to know that as well, one minute I'm sitting on the steps out front the next I hear rose scream for me, then I ended up fending off like 4 of those things."

"Quinn!" I heard rose calling out for me. "I stood just in time to catch her in my arms. "Hey munchkin, how's your head? You were our cold when I had Mia take you inside." She hugged me close. I'm fine what about you? Your bleeding?" Mia and dean were standing behind mom while she looked me over. "We should take you to go see stein quinn, your cut doesn't look to serious but he should clean it."

I sighed, "I'm okay, I'll go get patched up once I check on that girl and the boy I sent in before rose and mia." My mom gave me a annoyed look, "Mom I promise I'm okay." Rose was still attached to my waist.

"Mom?" It was only then that I noticed our audience, my father. There were a few others from the death room, but he had been the one that spoke.

"Yes soul, this is my son quinn." I stared at my mom, What was she talking to him for?