Spirit sunk to his knees, forgetting the danger that he was in, as the sudden silence overwhelmed the room.

Marie broke it, her face a happy smile as she laughed and wrapped her arm around Stein, resting her head on his shoulder while she dangled her fingers in front of the silent infant.

Stein's face was blank, the infant in his arms, Marie beside him. His eyes were unfocused and unseeing. His voice was anguished, and brought silence to the room again.

"Are you happy now?"

The infant's head lolled to the side, tilting weirdly on its neck as Stein turned to face Spirit. The death scythe looked up at the man from the floor, still in too much shock to move, to run, to flee. Stein took a step towards him, his arms tightening on the small infant.

"You'll hurt her if you squeeze too tightly," Marie said with a smile, gingerly removing the infant from Stein's arms. "It's so much better when she isn't screaming. I hope she'll always be this well behaved."

Stein's arms fell to his sides and the scientist's posture was that of a defeated man. His head hung to the floor, his hands open and limp. He spoke quietly, but Spirit heard him, "What have I done?"

"Stein?"

The man's head jerked up, and Spirit realized in that moment that he wasn't safe, that Stein may be fighting for sanity, but he was nowhere near sane. The look in the man's eyes was one of pure hatred and anguish, overrode with madness.

"You ruined it all!" the scientist screamed out suddenly, darting forward and at the stunned death scythe. A moment later his wavelength surged over Spirit and Spirit's world went black.

Spirit opened his eyes much later to a decided lack of pain. He was alone in the room, which he realized after a moment was his old room. It was full of boxes now, though a space large enough for a bed remained; it was upon that bed that he laid. He sat up slowly, noting that his shirt was gone, and checked himself for new scars.

He found none, though the incision on his side had been stitched closed.

He looked around for a moment and found his shirt laying on one of the boxes. The tear from the scalpel had also been stitched up. He stood and pulled the shirt on, wincing a little bit as he pulled the fresh stitches. He stepped out of the room, and tried to remain silent as he crept through the halls of the Lab.

"That's not necessary, Senpai." The death scythe jumped, his heart pounding, as Stein stepped around the corner. "I'm aware that something happened; whatever it was is past. Marie and I are fine now."

Spirit wondered if Stein retained any of what had happened. There was a melancholy in the scientist's voice that Spirit had never heard before. He almost asked before he thought better of it, changing his question at the last second to, "I'm glad to hear that then."

"How is your side?" Stein asked as he stepped towards Spirit.

The death scythe took a step backwards and Stein followed him. There was a look in Stein's eyes that Spirit didn't quite understand, and a moment later he found that the scientist had cornered him in the room he had woke up in, the door shut behind them.

"What happened, Spirit? What did we do?"

"I just came over to check on you, and I think that the grief had gotten to you. I don't remember too much, Stein, just that Marie was afraid of me again."

Stein's hands clenched into fists. "I know that you're lying. Tell me."

Spirit swallowed. "You attacked me because of her. Zapped me a few times, the last one I didn't wake up from until now. I tried to run," he raised his arm to show Stein the stitched tear, "and you caught me before I could."

Stein was quiet for a long moment. "There's more and I know it, Spirit. I… I remember something. I remember holding Violet. I remember her screaming! Then there's a sound I can't quite remember, and the next thing I remember I am sitting on the floor; Violet in my arms, Marie beside me, leaned up against an operating table. Marie was asleep." Stein took a deep breath. "Violet's neck was broken. That didn't happen before."

Spirit ran his hand through his hair. "I don't know what happened, Stein. I don't. I'm sure her screaming was just a hallucination. You can't bring back the dead. Maybe her… corpse… got knocked off the operating table and it happened."

Stein seemed to be staring through the weapon and Spirit forced himself to suppress the shudder that ran through his body as Stein said quietly, "I suppose you're right, Senpai."

The funeral was a somber affair. Marie sobbed against Stein the entire time, the scientist like a rock; his face blank as he stared off into the distance, his arm wrapped around Marie's shoulders.

Stein knew that there was something that Spirit wasn't telling him, but his memories of that night were so disjointed and broken that he didn't know what it could be.

Marie had insisted on a preacher for the ceremony, and Stein tuned the man out. What had God done for them that science could not? Nothing. He didn't see the point in having the man come, but he caved because it would make Marie happy.

'Are you happy now?'

Something twisted in Stein's mind, and his hand gripped Marie's shoulder. He could almost remember. He shuddered slightly, wondering suddenly if he truly wanted to remember.

Spirit left the funeral and went straight to Chupa Cabra's, drowning himself in drink and trying to block out his memories.

Two weeks passed. During that time Stein tried unsuccessfully to comfort Marie. He simply had too little experience, and at the end, they were both more often than not angry at the other. It came to a boiling point when Marie slapped him, his hand on her shoulder as she cried over Violet's death again.

"I trusted you!" Stein's hand fell to his side, his eyes wide as she continued, "I trusted you and you let her die! You may as well have killed her yourself!"

She regretted saying it the moment it came out of her mouth, her hand clamping over her mouth and her eye wide. Before she could apologize he had brushed past her and was gone into the night.

The door to Chupa Cabra's opened and all eyes turned to the late visitor. The last person that anyone had expected to see standing framed in the doorway was Franken Stein, the meister's hands clenched in fists and his cold gaze sweeping the room until it settled on a very drunk Spirit Albarn.

Long strides carried him to the weapon's side, and his fist connected cleanly with Spirit's jaw. The man's drink fell from his hand as he was slammed onto his side on the couch he was sitting on, Blair just barely moving out of the way. Before anyone could react Stein had Spirit by the collar and had dragged him to his feet. His green eyes bore into Spirit's blue ones, and the weapon swallowed hard as he realized that something must have clicked in the scientist's mind.

He wondered briefly if Stein was still sane before the scientist's knee collided with his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Stein released his collar then and the weapon hit his knees, just then becoming aware of the screaming of the bar girls, and the unmistakable sound of the barkeep's shotgun being loaded.

"D-don't shoot him," Spirit managed to force out, spitting blood onto the floor. He looked up to see the shotgun trained on Stein, the barkeep barely five feet from the seething meister.

"You lied to me. You knew what happened. You knew what happened to Violet!" Stein hissed out, kneeling down to Spirit's level, his hand tangling in Spirit's collar again. "You knew exactly what happened to her!"

Spirit met his gaze boldly. "I've been trying to forget dumbass, and hoping that neither you nor Marie ever remembered!" Stein's fist collided with his jaw again, causing the death scythe's head to snap to the side before he was released. Spirit shook his head to clear it, realizing that the barkeep had the barrel of the shotgun pressed against Stein's back.

"Don't shoot him. We'll be leaving now," Spirit said as he fished around in his back pocket for his wallet. He stood a bit unsteadily before pressing a wad of cash into the man's hand; shock covered everyone's faces as he left the club. Stein followed a moment later to the sound of the barkeep saying that he was calling the police.

Spirit stopped outside the door and leaned against the wall, dragging his sleeve across his lips and wincing at the taste of blood in his mouth. Stein stood beside him, his hands clenched into fists, and Spirit could tell that the meister was still pissed.

"It was for your own good, Stein," Spirit said quietly as he began moving away from the club. There was no response, and Spirit turned to look at the man. "Stein?"

"'You may as well have killed her yourself,'" Stein said. "That was the last thing that Marie said to me. She said that she had trusted me and that I may as well have killed Violet myself. I did. I killed my own daughter. I killed Marie's daughter," the man's hands clenched into fists again, "and why? Because I lost it and put everyone at risk. My daughter, Marie," his voice was low as he looked at Spirit before letting his gaze fall to the ground, "you. What happen when it happens again, Spirit?"

"You've controlled it for years, Stein."

"And now I haven't," the man said bitterly.

"You'll be strong, Stein. You always have been. Marie needs you to be strong now."

Stein's head shot up. "Marie." Stein darted back towards Lab, Spirit hot on his heels.

Stein hit the door to the lab, knocking it open, his eyes focused on Marie's soul. He was up the stairs and around corners before Spirit could even finish coming up the stairs and the weapon found Stein standing awkwardly in the doorway to Marie's room.

The woman had her face buried against Stein's chest, her arms wrapped around his waist as she sobbed against him. Stein's arms were held out and away from her, but as Spirit came around the corner he lowered his arms to settle them around Marie.

"I thought you had left me. I can't lose you too... I'm so sorry, so sorry. I know you did everything you could…" she whispered brokenly against his chest.

Stein met Spirit's eyes. They both knew in that instant that they could never let Marie know the truth.

A/N: So I was going to update Secrets yet, wrote out most of a chapter and realized that I didn't like anything I had written. I started work on a request, and this wouldn't leave me alone, so Resonance got updated first. I hope that you enjoyed it. Thank you all for reading, and thank you especially to those of you who review to let me know what you think; I appreciate everything.

I don't own Soul Eater.