Prologue: "At the end of everything, is when you're farthest from the finish line!"

Her Weapon felt abnormally heavy in her gloved hands. Her chest heaved deep, pained breaths in and out, and she glared menacingly out from under her furrowed eyebrows at her opponent. The ties that normally kept her hair in neat pigtails had long ago been torn to tatters, and her hair now flowed wildly about her head. Her gaze turned towards the blade of her scythe, and her harsh expression softened. In its depths, she could see the face of her partner, with a characteristically defiant expression, glaring at her. He was putting on a good show, but she could see how his teeth were stained red with the blood filling his mouth, no doubt from one of over a dozen internal injuries….

She realized he was mouthing, shouting, words at her, but she had long ago tuned out the psychic link between them. She almost chuckled, thinking, Why is it… at times like this… men always seem to have to go on some long-winded speech about not giving up…? As if I could right now…. She tightened her grip on the scythe's handle, wincing and closing one eye at how the act of tensing caused jolts of pain to flare from the deep gash at her side. She felt the corresponding side of her shirt get more damp, and the knowledge that she was slowly bleeding out made her want to shudder. She bit down on her lip to suppress the reaction.

Speaking through her clenched jaw, she said in a swelling voice, "Soul… I swear if you do not shut up, I'll start using you to scrape gum and dog crap off of people's shoes."

The scythe's, Soul "Eater" Evans's, reaction was immediate and priceless. The scythe head swiveled to regard her with its ornamental eye warped into a mortified, incensed expression. "Like hell…! I'm just trying to help you, you know, not die, you idiot. You're out there getting both our asses kicked; it's embarrassing! …Not to mention completely uncool." Despite the inarguably desperate nature of their situation, Soul couldn't stop a wry grin from claiming his face. "But it's good to see you still have some fight left in you, Maka…."

Maka Albarn gave in and flashed a grim smirk despite herself. "Yeah…." She returned her gaze towards their opponent, fighting against a growing tide of despair at the sight of the soul's steady swelling. She felt a fiery anger growing in her chest. "Soul… are you all right for round two?"

Soul snorted a thick wad of bloody snot from one nostril, spat out a fresh mouthful of blood, and grinned, his red eyes burning with dark intent. "Pfeh, who do you think you're talking to? I'm a Death Scythe, not some dinky can opener…. Let's take that thing out." Maka grinned again; the fact that they were near death never even occurred to them. She started to step forward, but Soul's suddenly gentle voice stopped her. "Maka…." She looked down again with an annoyed glance at the scythe's blade, and at Soul's face, reflected in the scythe's blade and wearing an uncharacteristically soft expression. "…Don't die on me."

Her expression softened into a sad one, an expression too solemn and tired for so young a face. Her arms trembled slightly, but she tightened her grip on the scythe handle again to put an instant stop to it. She swallowed. "All… all right, Soul. I… promise." She let herself take another moment to look at his face, then closed her eyes and gathered her strength for one last push. When her eyes reopened, they were aflame with deadly intent. She directed them at her target. "All right, you damn monster! This has gone on long enough! Get ready! Soul, now!"

They spoke together as one voice: "Let's go! Soul Resonance!"

Maka's hands shook as she felt her soul's power rushing into the scythe's handle, then steadied at the sudden inrush of its exponentially amplified magnitude an instant later. The explosion of power lifted her hair over her head, and she and Soul grunted then shouted in unison as they approached the maximum output of their combined strength. Her eyes shone brightly, and her body convulsed from the force of the power roiling within it.

She planted her feet wide apart, the sinewy muscles in her legs coiled and taut, ready to propel her into a violent cacophony of motion at an instant's notice. She reveled in the feel of the power circulating through her body, relished the simplicity of the motions of whirling Soul's scythe form over her head and into an offense-minded position of readiness. Yes, she thought, feeling the previous almost-unbearable weight of the scythe melt away to near-nothingness, until it simply felt like an extension of her arm, her will, her soul. Yes, she thought, closing her eyes and summoning up the vision of her planned assault, as well as the strength and willpower to follow through with it. Yes!, she thought as she opened her eyes and drew in her breath, crouching down in preparation to leap.

At long last, tedious thought became glorious action; she exploded forward, her energy shredding the ground she'd occupied only moments before. She pulled back her scythe, her thin arms tight with improbable power. An aura surrounded the demonic curvature of the scythe's blade, and it expanded to twice, thrice, ten times its normal size.

Maka's eyes were wide and bloodshot, full of the sweeping passion of unbridled rage. "ALICE! GIVE THEM BAAACK!"

-Hey everybody! Yeah, I guess I'm back, and doing another story…. I know it hasn't even been 4 whole weeks since I finished my last fic, but I've had this little number going through my brain for a while now, and I've just now gotten a chance to really get serious about fleshing out what were initially just a few sketchy concepts into the subtle beginnings of a true story worth telling. This will be a story centering around the nature (and eventual subtle change of that nature) of the relationship between one Maka Albarn and one Soul "Eater" Evans. There will be comedy, (most definitely) a dash of fluff (hopefully strictly an appropriate amount, and only for comic purposes), some action (uh, duh, read the above, anyone?), and maybe even a little intrigue!-

-This fic is a collaboration between myself and another member, HybridTailedFox. We have been working on conceptualizing this from my original tiny seed of an idea, which sprouted out of, of all things, a love song. This song is called "Just So You Know" by Pete Schmidt. I highly recommend you listen to it; I think it's just such a perfect song for a Soul Eater (kinda-sorta) pairing fic! Not only that, but some subtle themes of the song will work their way into the story…. But don't get confused… this is NOT a songfic! Okay, so notes on this chapter….-

-Don't you just hate it when a movie/anime/book opens up with a scene from right in the middle of the epic "Boss Battle"…? Only to have the movie/anime/book then go all Tarantino and rewind like 2 weeks prior to that scene, to start off the story in an actual chronological manner? What the hell, right?! Well, that's exactly what's going on here! Hope you enjoyed this little bit of foreshadowing, etc., etc., etc…. We'll try to have the next chapter, Chapter 1, out soon! This'n here's just the Prologue! Until next time!-