"Marie?" Stein whispered collapsing into his chair. "Spirit, Marie is dead. I know this. I watched it happen. I couldn't stop it."
Spirit sat down across from Stein. "We all thought that. It was a trick. The only people who knew she wasn't dead were Lord Death and Marie herself. It was to keep her safe." There was compassion in Spirit's eyes. "She came back for you, Stein. Lord Death finally agreed that it was safe enough, that the threat had passed so she came back. For you."
"You're lying. I'm falling into Madness and it's a lie." Stein whispered. "I have to pull it together. Chiyumi needs her food. Marie is dead. You are not here."
Spirit reached and touched Stein's shoulder. "I'm sorry this so upsetting, but you really should at least come to see her at the DWMA. She'll be waiting for you." He stood and left, quietly closing the door behind him.
Stein blinked at the door, and looked down at the tray of food in his hands. 'A hallucination?' He thought to himself. 'There's no plausible way that Marie is alive. Spirit wasn't here. It was a hallucination brought on by a lack of sleep and overwork. Yes. That's it.'
Stein carefully brought the food up to Chiyumi's room, knocking lightly on the door before entering. She looked up at him, smiling weakly as she sat the notebook and pen down that she had been writing with. He noted that she had managed to prop herself up.
"Ramen?" She asked with a half laugh.
"No, noodles in beef broth." He smirked.
"So… same thing." She laughed.
"Yes. You should be able to feed yourself; I'll be just downstairs if you need me."
"Thank you, Professor." She said, watching as he placed the tray with her food on across her legs.
After he left, Chiyumi felt the ache that she had woke up with grow, and clutched the bed to keep from passing out as it overwhelmed her. The bowl of ramen clattered to the ground, broth and noodles spilling across the floor.
Professor Stein wasn't even half way down the stairs when he heard the bowl fall and Chiyumi's voice raise into a scream.
"She's seizing again." The voice was calm, cold, professional.
Stein stood in the doorway to the hospital room, feeling completely useless. He could see what the doctors couldn't, the one thing that they had to be able to understand in order to help her.
Spirit placed his hand on Stein's shoulder. "She's in good hands, Stein. They'll figure out what's going on."
"If I couldn't what makes you think for an instant that these untrained louts will be able to?" Stein's voice was low and menacing, his head down, the light glinting off his glasses concealing his eyes.
"Sir?" That same cold voice. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave. We're afraid that your presence is upsetting the patient even further."
Stein stood up straight and glared down at the man. "My presence is the only thing that is keeping her calm enough to not slice all of you into small pieces. I will not be leaving." His voice was cold and hard. Menacing.
"Stein, take a deep breath. She's not even aware of her surroundings right now." Spirit pulled Stein's shoulder back a bit. "Let's go grab a cup of coffee. It's not doing you any good to see her like this."
"No."
"Stein."
"I said no. That is the end of this conversation, Spirit." Stein turned back to watch as Chiyumi seized again, her small body wracked by the powerful convulsions. Looking past that he looked at her soul, feeling a tightening in his chest as each seizure seemed to weaken it even more. He didn't know what to do. He just couldn't understand what was happening.
'I took the medication first. I was the lab rat, not her.' He thought. 'Whatever reaction she is having to it I should be having as well.'
"But haven't you already had reactions, Stein?" A familiar, feminine voice asked, a hand resting on his back.
"Marie. You're dead."
"Am I Stein? I seem to be right here. You can feel my wavelength right beside you. I know you can." She moved into his field of vision, her hand trailing along to his chest, smiling up at him. "I've missed you Stein."
"You're dead." He looked away and back at Chiyumi. "That's the 4th seizure in the last twenty minutes," he said quietly.
Marie looked over her shoulder. "She's going to die. You can't stop that."
"Marie would never say that." He said gently. "She would tell me that I would find a way to save her, that she had faith in me." He glanced down at her, a sadistic smile playing across his features. "Now tell me who you really are and what've you done to Chiyumi."
Spirit blinked in surprise as Stein walked away from the door, a blank expression on his face. Glancing back into the room where Chiyumi lay, he quickly followed Stein, only to lose him a second later. By the time he had caught up with him outside Stein was face to face with a woman that closely resembled Chiyumi, though it was obvious that she was missing some stitches that were visible on Chiyumi.
"Stein?"
"Spirit, get back." Stein's voice was… hate filled and his entire body looked tense.
"Shiyumi." Stein said, his voice dripping acid. "You're dead. Stay that way. Don't try to take the shape of other people to fool us. It won't work. Let your sister go."
"Stein."
"Spirit, stay back!"
"Aww, isn't it so sweet that you're still so protective of that little brat? She's my sister after all. Not your daughter. Though, I believe that you would enjoy that wouldn't you, Papa Stein?" The grin was sadistic, filled with malice. "I've let you have her for the last eight years. Time to share."
She lunged.
"Stein!" Spirit leapt towards his partner, transforming into a Scythe. Stein brought the weapon up just in time to block, and Spirit couldn't help but gasp at the pain the attack brought.
"Spirit?" Stein asked, falling back into a defensive stance, noticing with shock the blood dripping from the blade.
"It's nothing." Spirit's pained voice came as he appeared in the weapons blade, one eye closed against the flow of blood. "She's a witch."
"Yes, I had figured as much." Stein said.
"Aren't you two the smart ones?" She smirked. "But, I'd rather not have this out here. And I think you've forgotten about someone."
The witch took two running steps before leaping into the air turning into a small mockingbird, laughing as she called back, "I'm not that easy to kill, Stein."
Stein leaned wearily against the wall as Spirit came out of his Scythe form, blood running from a bad slash on the top of his head. "Are you alright, Spirit?" Stein asked quietly.
"I'm just glad we're already at the hospital and I don't have to let you cut me open again." Spirit replied with a slight laugh.
"Yes, well, good luck explaining the cut. I have to get back to Chiyumi." Stein went to walk away.
"I fell." He said, shrugging. "The nurses are cute, they'll buy it."
They both walked back in, Stein to Chiyumi's room and Spirit to the ER.