Okay seriously, the next chapter has to do with Soma Week.

"Okay, can someone please explain to me what the hell is going on? It seems like you guys know a lot more than we do." Liz narrowed her eyes at Kid in particular. As soon as Maka, Black*Star, Soul, and Tsubaki grabbed them all from their lunch period, they rapidly explained that their teachers have disappeared into thin air and they needed to get out of the school now, before everything went to shit once everyone realized, hey, no adults. I can do whatever I want.

As soon as he heard the news, Kid went into military general mode rushed them out of their high school, cramming the seven of them into Black*Star's rusty brown pick-up truck (Soul was beyond pissed that he had to leave his motorcycle, but Kid insisted that they would come back for it later). As soon as everyone was situated, they sped off to the nearest Publix and cleared shelves of things necessary to survive in the long run.

And now they were in Kid's one of many living rooms, trying to draw out answers that he obviously had.

The tension in the room grew tenfold, and Soul noticed that Maka started to twirl one of her pigtails, a habit he realized she had when she was nervous or uneasy about something. He scooted over next to her and grabbed the offending hand, lacing his fingers with hers.

She glanced at him and shifted closer to him, a subtle way to say thank you for trying to comfort her. He squeezed it, and gently pressed his lips to her knuckles. He hated the fact that he couldn't do anything to at least make her feel better, but he would damn well try.

Maka was weird, and he had yet to figure out the way she thought, the way she would react to things. She would be completely fearless in the face of a nerve wracking presentation or having to take a very important test, but would become alert, almost paranoid when they were out at the movies or at a restaurant. They would be out at dinner, and he would see her eyes constantly darting back and forth, as if she was looking or expecting something.

Oh, she hid it well, but he still noticed. It made him even more curious about her and about her life before she moved to Death City, but he never ventured to ask her about it. He figured she would tell him whatever it was that happened back then when she was ready. She was private about her life, and quite frankly, he was too. It was only fair that he'd be patient.

Finally having enough of the very long and very silent pause, Kid spoke, "Remember three years back, when the FAYZ—uh, The Anomaly, happened?" He stumbled over his words, forgetting that the media is a very fickle platform and that everyone that wasn't Black*Star and Maka would have no idea what the FAYZ, an acronym that stood for Fallout Alley Youth Zone, was.

This didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the group. Kid was usually very eloquent with what he said, and now he was acting like a nervous schoolboy talking to his crush.

Despite the slip up, everyone nodded, anxious to know what he had to say. The Anomaly was a nationwide news story. Everyone, starting at the age of fifteen, disappeared from a small town in California and the remaining kids were trapped in an egg like dome to fend for themselves. No one knew how to get them out.

Soul remembered watching the news story, in his very large and very fancy house in Connecticut with his brother and parents before he moved to Death City. He remembered them saying how unfortunate it was that the families had to go through the loss of their children, and that they were glad that it wasn't their darling sons.

All the while looking at Wes with warmth and love he rarely ever received from them. It made him sick to even think about it.

He honestly never even thought about it when it came on the news. To him, it was just one of those overused news stories that was surreal because it wasn't happening to him. The aspect of being totally cut off from the outside world did freak him out, though. And he did feel bad for the kids inside the dome.

But what exactly was Kid getting at? And what was with the slip up? He heard that the survivors called the incident the 'FAYZ', and that some people adopted the saying because it 'sounded cooler.' Maybe Kid had the same philosophy and was ashamed to passive aggressively mock The Anomaly?

Soul immediately rejected the thought. Kid was the most respectful gentleman he knew, almost to the point to of being ridiculous. He wouldn't resort to mocking something that was very much a tragedy in order to sound 'cool.' But there was no way he was a part of that? Surely one of his best friends would tell him something like that?

Thinking back, Maka said something about grabbing Kid and the Thompsons, before they got the hell out of there. And Black*Star wasn't being a total dumbass like usual.

God, surely his girlfriend would tell him something as huge as being one of the survivors of The Anomaly? Surely that wasn't why Maka acted so weird in unpredictable situations?

Fuck. Okay, just let Kid explain. You freaking out about this piece of info is not going to help anyone.

Soul took a deep breath. He needed to stay rational about this, he needed to stay cool.

He watched Kid close his eyes and take a deep breath himself. At last, he opened them and continued, "With all that's been going on, and the fact that all the adults that all the adults we can see are just gone—!"

"Whoa, whoa, hold up. Are you saying that we are going through that now?" Eyes wide, she looked at Kid with a stunned look on her face. She leaned closer to Patty, who was watching everything unfold with wide eyes. Patty looked at her sister, and then to Kid. Seeing the grim look on both of their faces made her realize that she was scared, and it was very visible on her face.

Liz violently shook her head, her loose hair flying, "No, you've got to be joking. Didn't the news say that a radioactive meteor caused The Anomaly back then? I've only been in Death City for a couple of years, but I'm pretty sure something like that never happened."

"Do you have a better explanation on what's going on, Liz? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that I saw my history teacher disappear into thin air." Black*Star gave her a hard look, shocking her to silence. He was serious and Black*Star was never serious. Liz gave him a measured look, but ultimately stayed silent.

Soul glanced at Tsubaki, who was quiet throughout this whole ordeal. He watched her glance at Black*Star, Kid, Maka, then back to Black*Star. He could tell she was thinking something, something that he didn't want to think about himself.

Finally, Tsubaki glanced at Soul. They shared a look, and silently agreed that they needed to ask the question that they would probably regret later on.

Tsubaki took a deep breath, and spoke with a sense of finality to her tone, "Kid, what's going on?"

She had a hard glint to her otherwise tranquil face, and Soul immediately knew there was no way any one was going to bullshit her on this. He watched Kid's reaction, as he tended to do when he wasn't quite sure what to do himself. He felt Maka's hand squeeze his, and when he looked down at her, her eyes were downcast, refusing to meet his own.

It made his stomach sink to realize that his initial thought had been right.

Kid's shoulders sagged and he sank back against the plush sofa he was stiffly sitting on. The secret he tried so hard to keep was bound to come out sooner or later, even if he did prefer later rather than sooner.

"Alright then. As you know, three years ago everyone over fourteen disappeared. And we were stuck in the middle of it." Kid motioned towards Black*Star and Maka. "It was coincidental, fortuitous really, that we were all in the same academy when it happened."

Black*Star laughed humorlessly, "Goddamn, that place sucked."

"So, that's why you freaked when the teachers disappeared?" Liz directed the question to Kid, ignoring Black*Star's comment. "Do—do you think that the same thing is happening now?"

"I honestly don't know. It's hard comprehending what happened back then to be even real. There are still a lot of factors that we have to consider."

The statement hung heavily over everyone. Maka stayed silent, but thankfully looked relieved that this was out in the open. But despite Maka's brave face, Soul was still concerned about her. At this point, she would normally chip in her two cents, talk about how they needed a plan to go about their next move. But she didn't say anything at all.

He really needed to get her alone, to talk to her. She needed him, and he knew she always felt significantly better when she spoke her mind. Even when she insisted that she was fine, Soul knew she needed it. He needed to know what the fuck was going through her brain so he knew how to help her.

A guttural moan of irritation rang through the otherwise silent room, snapping everyone out of their own train of thought, "You guys need to chill out. The reason everything went to shit last time was because everyone was stupid. Then they got scared because they realized how in trouble they were, so then they did stupid things." Black*Star then grinned, "Now can go and eat something? I'm pretty sure we skipped lunch, and I'm fucking starving."

He jumped up from his seat and offered his hand to Tsubaki, who took it with a gracious smile on her face. Everyone grinned, and took his cue to relax for the time being. To Liz's delight, even Patty brightened a little at their friend's antics, and asked Kid multiple questions, mostly about if he got to eat all of the junk food possible back then, and if she could too.

Soul watched everyone leave with an amused smile on his face, not quite believing that everyone could go from confused and terrified to jovial in less than a second. But he had strange friends, so it was expected.

He looked back at Maka, who in turn glanced at him. She bit her lip and earnestly looked into his eyes. "Soul, I… I'm sorry. This is probably something I should have told you earlier, but I didn't."

He shook his head, gliding the pad of his thumb over her knuckles, "No need to apologize for something like that. I can't even begin to imagine going through something like that and coming out with an intact sanity, so don't think you need to say sorry for not telling me."

"But Soul, you deserved to know! I knew you had questions about why I was acting so weird, but I was too scared to even—!"

"Maka Albarn, shut up." With a forceful tug, she fell into his chest, his strong arms trapping her to his body, "Just calm down, yeah? You can explain everything to me later. Right now, let's just worry about not letting Kid find out we stole his prized stash of that expensive Swiss chocolate."

"Psh, yeah alright." She leaned against him, letting him hold her for a few moments, "You probably won't look at me the same way ever again."

He tightened his grip on her, leaning his cheek on the top of her head, "If I can look past you beating me with your binder or your book, I can look past anything."

Maka slightly shook her head, but smiled at him anyway. She gave him that smile that did funny things to him, that made him know he was an extremely lucky guy to know someone like her.

Maka broke away from him and rose from the couch, walking to the kitchen, "Come on, I think I'm in the mood for some chocolate."