A/N: Thank you to all the reviewers! I really appreciate your comments (:

Also, this chapter contains graphic violence. Please read at your discretion.

He figured it would become a habit, meeting Maka in the dining hall during breakfast so she could walk him to where he needed to be. Even though she was short, she was hard to miss; her bright red and black plaid skirt was easy to spot in the mass of white uniforms. She was also sitting by an empty seat, which was like finding something misplaced at one of his mother's parties - it didn't happen.

Regardless, he made his way through the line and placed his tray next to hers on the table, stifling a yawn as he dropped down in his seat.

"'Mornin'," he rumbled, leaning over his tray to dig into (what he guessed was) a pile of scrambled eggs. Maka smiled tiredly at him. Several "good morning"s and other greetings sounded back to him and he looked up, recognizing the faces from the basketball court two days ago.

"Oh hey," Soul grunted through a mouthful.

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full," Maka chided him. He rolled his eyes and continued eating.

Liz squealed something, and the white-haired pilot lifted his head to see her clutching her sister. Patti giggled back and patted Liz on the head. He turned to Maka but she avoided his questioning gaze, a red tint high on her cheeks.

"Are you excited to meet your partner, Soul?" Tsubaki asked. She seemed to deliberately be ignoring Black Star beside her, who was shoveling in food like a snowplow in a blizzard.

Soul paused to swallow, then shrugged. "It's gonna be weird." He was certain they all knew what had happened in Nome. There weren't any secrets anymore; no one felt the need to hide anything. If he chose to read their files, he'd know almost everything about everyone at the table.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Kid intoned, not looking up from his book. What a nerd, Soul thought as he gulped down orange juice, then he smiled. Speaking of nerds… Maka had been noticeably silent this morning. Usually she would talk his ear off. He nudged her with his elbow.

"Why so quiet, pigtails?" he asked. "Late night?" He grinned, remembering how she had pinked when he'd smiled at her.

"I was studying," she replied vaguely. His smirk disappeared, sliding into a curious expression. Before he could ask her why the hell she was studying when the goddamned Earth was about to end, Black Star jumped up.

"Soul, my bro!" the blue-haired pilot bellowed. Soul slouched and looked around the dining hall, but no one seemed to pay the loud-mouthed man any attention. "Come on, peasant! I'm taking you to your bay!"

"Wait, I thought Maka - ?" Soul trailed off. Maka simply shook her head. Soul frowned. God, even her pigtails look tired.

"Hurry up, man!" Black Star complained. Soul sighed as he stood up with his tray, but Maka put a hand on his arm, halting him.

"I'll take that back for you when I take mine. Black Star's chomping at the bit to leave," she waved her other hand toward the pilot who was now running in place.

"Thanks," Soul grunted, putting his tray back down. He stretched out his limbs before acknowledging his chauffeur. "Okay, man, let's go." As they headed out, Soul glanced back at Maka. She was sandwiched between Tsubaki and Liz - they seemed to be whispering furtively to her - and her head was dropped into her hands. His brows furrowed, and Liz looked up. She grinned wickedly, then turned and resumed talking with Maka with even more passion.

"You're fallin' behind, pleb!" Black Star called. Soul hadn't noticed that he'd halted in the middle of the exit, and moved to catch up to the other pilot.

"So," Black Star began, "do you remember how to drift?"

"It's hard to forget," Soul remarked derisively.

"I know you're not a god like me," the man continued, "so I was just looking out for my minion."

"'Minion?'" the white-haired pilot repeated, eyebrow raised.

"Of course. I'm a god." As if that explained everything. Soul rolled his eyes, but Black Star didn't notice. He went on, "Anyway, if you need a bro, I'm your bro." He held out a fist and Soul bumped it with his own, his mouth tipping up into a half-smile. How was it that, at the end of civilization, Soul could finally make friends?

The two men had almost reached the bay when Soul thought to ask, "Hey, do you know who my partner is?"

Black Star chuffed a laugh. "Gods know all," he said ambiguously, hauling the bay door open. It slammed to the side, announcing their presence to the crew stationed in the bay. Soul ignored their stares as he and Black Star made their way to the fitting tech.

"This is where I leave you," the blue-haired pilot clapped Soul on the back. Soul almost winced; the guy could pack a punch. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" With that, Black Star backed out of the room, leaving Soul to suit up in the sleek black pilot uniform - an upgrade from the standard white gear that he had donned four years previously.

"There isn't much he wouldn't do," one of the techs muttered, and Soul stifled a chuckle. He decided he liked his fellow pilot, his bro. However, thoughts of a bro brought back memories of an actual brother, one whose body was never recovered from the Atlantic.

Soul shook himself. Thinking about Nome and Wes wouldn't help him drift today. His new partner deserved his full attention and commitment, and Soul wasn't going to accept anything less in return.

Once he was fully outfitted, Soul stepped into the conn-pod. Two techies followed behind him to help him strap in. It felt good to be back in Resonance; he hadn't realized how much he missed it until he was back. He could already feel the adrenaline in his blood as he was harnessed into the right side of the conn-pod. He heard more footsteps approach, signalling the arrival of his new partner. He closed his eyes.

"I'm gonna be honest," Soul called over to his partner, "you're gonna see some fucked-up shit when we drift."

"I've done my research," a familiar voice called back. Soul's eyes snapped open as he whipped his head to the left. He couldn't suppress a grin as Maka's own smile beamed back at him.

"Well hello, pigtails," he welcomed, his serrated smile stretching from ear to ear.

"Surprised to see me?" she asked as her tech secured her into her harness. He decided that the black gear suited her. Having her small form next to his was odd, though; Wes had stood at about the same height as Soul. However, the white-haired pilot found that the oddity wasn't an unwelcome one.

"I wondered if Stein would give up his prized informant to be partners with me," he answered instead.

"This is something I've been waiting to do for a long time," she murmured, just barely loud enough for Soul to catch.

"Hey now, don't fall asleep on me," he teased, hiding his legitimate concern for his new partner.

Partner. Partners with Maka. That was beyond cool.

"I won't," she vowed.

"Pilots of Soul Resonance," Stein's voice crackled over the earpiece, reminiscent of old times. "Today is a practice run to see if you can drift with each other and pilot your Jaeger."

"Yes, sir," Maka saluted, though Soul knew the Commander Marshal couldn't see. The techies left, sealing the exit behind them, and the conn-pod descended toward the rest of the Jaeger. Soul smiled over at his copilot, but her attention was focused forward, concentrating intensely. The conn-pod finally made contact with the rest of the body, and the Jaeger self-attached the head, thus securing the conn-pod and its pilots into place.

A soft puff indicated the presence of Stein still on the communicator. "Are you two ready to drift?"

Soul wondered why Stein wasn't just letting the pilots initiate drift like normal, but he didn't ask. Instead, he closed his eyes as he heard Maka again answer, "Yes, sir." He sent the command for calibration and actively relaxed his tense limbs as he waited for the neural connection to begin. All at once, they fell into each other's minds.

At first, Soul rejected Maka's entrance, memories of his last partner flashing by and the feeling of feeling Wes die attempting to submerge him. Vaguely, he heard voices through his earpiece attempt to lure him back out of his thoughts. He remembered Maka, who was not just his partner, but his friend, and let go of his reservations. He could feel her finally glide through his mind, drift reached on his side - but something was still off. He looked over to her body, still and unresponsive to his left.

"Maka," he called. She didn't acknowledge him, lost in memories of her own. "Maka," he tried again, "let me in. Come on, we can do this!" Suddenly the conn-pod disappeared, and he found himself inside a dark closet. Just in front of him was a much younger Maka who was peeking through a small crack in the door and horridly watching something ahead. Soul squinted through the small space and saw a young woman sitting on a bed. Tears streamed down her face, and her eyes (so green, just like Maka's) were wide and wild. He looked down at Maka, then back to the woman, and it hit him that she was Maka's mother. Just as he made the connection, the woman on the bed wobbily pressed a gun up into the base of her jaw.

"Mama, no!" little Maka cried, bursting through the door. Soul couldn't look as a loud bang! rewarded her efforts. Maka screamed.

"Maka," he gritted his teeth, walking out of the closet with his eyes still averted, "it's just a memory." She kept screaming, and a tall, red-haired man burst into the room. "Kami, the fire escape's - "He stopped in his tracks, the color draining from his face as he took in the scene before him.

"Oh, God." The man lurched forward and sank to his knees by the edge of the bed. He stared helplessly at Maka's mother before he reached out, taking the ring from her left hand. He dropped it in his pocket before he turned to Maka. She stumbled into his arms, her screams melting into sobs. Her small hands clasped at his neck as the man held her tightly.

"Maka, it's not real." Soul knew he couldn't touch her to get her attention; it was only a memory, after all. He could only hope that she could hear his voice.

And as if it was a bad horror movie, Soul heard the roar of a Kaiju outside. The building began to shake, pieces of plaster falling from the ceiling. Soul knew the rubble wouldn't hurt him; the whole thing wasn't real.

"Maka, we have to go," the red-haired man choked out, easily picking Maka up and striding out of the room. Soul followed close behind.

"But Mama!" Maka protested, a hand reaching behind the man's head to grasp towards the dead woman in the bedroom. Her face peeked out, almost as red as the man's long hair.

"Mama..." the man trailed off. "Papa's got you now," he said instead, throwing open a door that lead to a hallway. It was crowded with people desperate to get out of the building. Maka's dad would've made a great linebacker; he made it to the stairwell in record time, pushing and shoving past hysterical men and women. Soul wove in and out of the crowd, still following the pair. He guessed, as Maka's father flew down the stairs, that Maka's skill in the training room was partially inherited. Maka's weight didn't seem to hinder the red-haired man in the slightest.

The building shuddered as the Kaiju approached - Soul could see it coming in the windows of the stairwell. Before they had reached the first floor, however, the Kaiju made a swipe for the building. The impact rocked the building, causing the lights to flicker and debris to fall on them. Maka's dad covered her head as he rocketed down the remaining stairs.

Finally, they made it to the bottom, and Maka's father flung open the door. The room was a frenzy of people trying to get to the outside, the mass exodus leaping from the proverbial frying pan into the fryer. The red-headed man fought his way to the front of the pack - Soul still trailing father and daughter - as another terrifying screech rocked the building. Maka's dad had no sooner gotten the both of them outside when Soul saw the Kaiju take another swing at the building, knocking the upper half of the building down in their direction.

Yeah, this was definitely like a bad horror movie.

Maka's dad looked up at the falling debris and kept running, but while the man had strength, he didn't have speed. With a kind of sickening clarity, Soul could guess what was going to happen next. The sheer noise of the situation - the thundering of the collapsing building, people screaming, stomach-turning crunches that Soul didn't want to think about - made it hard to think, even though the whole thing was just a memory. However, he could somehow still hear what the red-headed man was saying to Maka as he tried to get the both of them to safety.

"Maka, you know that Mama and Papa love you very much," he reminded her. "You are a strong, smart girl, and we are so proud of you." In his words and the way he tightened his grip on his daughter, Soul knew that her dad knew he wasn't going to make it. As huge pieces of the building rained down hot on their heels, Maka's dad shoved her in a small alcove in the side of another building. There wasn't enough room for both of them, and the red-headed man tugged on Maka's little pigtails. He gave her a wistful smile, tears streaming, and he stuck one of his hands into his pocket. He pulled out Maka's mother's ring, then took off his own. He tucked both of them into her small hands as he whispered, "Keep these safe, okay? The Jaegers will come. They'll - "

And just like when Wes died, Maka's dad didn't even get to finish his sentence before his life was cut short, the sharp claws of the Kaiju shredding him along with the rubble from the destroyed building. Soul turned away from the scene and took a deep breath; he knew it was just a memory but goddamn.

"Papa!" little Maka cried, but she didn't move from her spot, clutching the rings tightly to her heart. The Kaiju roared again, but Soul was focused on the younger version of his partner as she tried to cry silently so as not to attract the attention of the creature. She closed her eyes and curled up into a ball, rocking back and forth while the Kaiju wreaked havoc outside.

Soul crouched down next to her. "Maka," he murmured, "this isn't real." Heavy steps sounded in the distance, and the monster turned toward the source. Soul also turned and squinted, but he could hardly see Maka through the dust, let alone a mile or so in the distance.

The familiar noises of a Kaiju/Jaeger battle came to him, and after what felt like hours, silence finally covered the area. Soul wasn't sure if that was better or worse. Maka lifted her head and cautiously scanned the outside before carefully peeking her head out of her nook. When no danger was present, she crawled out. She spun around in a slow circle, her parents' rings still pressed tightly to her chest, and she started to cry out again. She shuffled down the street, tripping on the debris but never letting go of her precious treasures.

As she attempted to escape the area, the thundering footsteps from before headed in her direction. Soul watched as she frantically searched left and right for a place to hide but, too soon, an enormous shadow fell over her. She turned wide, terrified emerald eyes to the thing looming over her - a Jaeger.

Soul and Maka peered up at the mechanical warrior, waiting for something to happen as it paused in front of them. The girl trembled, quaking hard enough that Soul worried she'd lose the rings she held in her tiny hand. The top of the conn-pod of the Jaeger opened, and a figure climbed out on top. Soul barely recognized the pilot's uniform from days long past in basic training - that specific design was quickly scrapped after it was discovered that the suit was a shitty protector against the radioactivity generated by the Mark-I Jaegers. The pilot took off his headgear, and Soul's jaw dropped.

Atop the Jaeger, a younger Stein tucked his helmet under his arm offered little Maka a soft smile.

When the power to Resonance was cut off, Soul didn't wait for the techies to come and unstrap him from his harness. He unstrapped himself in a frenzy before rushing over to Maka, who was still unresponsive to the outside world. He quickly freed her from her harness, catching her with an arm banded around her chest when she fell. He gently brought them down to the ground and laid her down with her head against his chest. He worked her headgear off of her as he murmured, "It's okay. You're okay," over and over again. He couldn't tell if she could hear him or not - her eyes were glazed - but it made himself feel better. He took off his own helmet and threw it aside before returning to her. Up close, he could see the tear tracks on her face. His heart clenched as he examined his partner.

His partner who had watched both her parents die and was up close with a Kaiju before being rescued by the present Commander Marshal.

Soul had to take some deep breaths himself as her memory processed in his mind. He immediately recalled compatibility testing when he had teased her about what her parents thought of her language. He felt immensely guilty now, knowing her background. Yeah, he had definitely deserved that sparring staff to the head.

He kept his crimson gaze on Maka as she sucked in air, her viridian orbs finally starting to clear. Her eyes darted left and right, no doubt looking for the danger that was in her memory.

"Hey, look at me," Soul commanded softly but firmly. She fixed her sight on him, hyperventilating in the wake of her traumatic recollection. "Just breathe. Here, match me," he went on, and he maintained steady breathing for her to copy. Seconds later, the techies burst into the conn-pod to make sure that nothing was damaged when the power to Soul Resonance was cut, but Soul hardly noticed them, his full attention on his partner.

Her tears had stopped and her breathing returned to normal, her pounding heart easing up a bit. He tucked her under his chin as he continued whispering soothing words to her. He knew how hard dealing with death was; hell, he probably knew best, since he was still drifting with Wes when he was killed.

"I'm sorry." If Soul hadn't been holding Maka so close, he would have missed the apology that whispered across the skin of his exposed neck.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for." He was confused. Drifting with bad memories wasn't easy, but they had at least attained it. He remembered a time when, even with good memories, he couldn't drift with anyone.

"I let you down. I'm so sorry," she mumbled, her breath starting to hitch again.

"Maka, hey, listen to me." He released his hold on her only to grip her by the shoulders, forcing her to meet his gaze head-on. "We drifted. That's pretty cool."

"We weren't able to hold drift," she reminded him, her gaze dropping from his as her shoulders slumped.

"Today was just practice," he countered, lifting her chin so she'd look at him again.

"But I failed!" she argued. "What if that happened in the middle of a battle?"

"It won't. That's why we practice first," he pointed out.

"But still," she insisted, hanging her head. "I failed you as a partner today."

"So don't do it again." He shrugged as she stared at him with wide eyes. "Sure, easier said than done, but that's why we practice. I'll help you out, and you'll help me. We're partners, Maka."

"Excuse me," a techie cut in, and the two pilots looked up at her. "We need to make sure any of the electrical components of your suits haven't been damaged." Maka nodded as Soul sighed, and they both stood up. The white haired pilot grabbed both of their helmets on the way out.

After exiting the conn-pod, he waved off the tech help that came to help them remove their gear. Maka gave him a weird look, but he didn't bother explaining as he motioned for her to turn around. He knew how to take off a suit, even if it was a different style than what he was used to. He helped her out of her uniform, taking extra care to be gentle. As the final pieces were removed, she was left standing in front of him in just a t-shirt, shorts, and socks, all drenched with sweat. He laid her gear in a heap that was quickly taken by the techies. Maka then moved behind him.

"I can get that," he offered, turning his head to the side but otherwise not moving.

"I'm your partner," she stated, and Soul smiled at her renewed courage.

Once his suit was also gone, they made their way back through the maze of hallways to their rooms. Before Maka could disappear into hers, Soul reached out and grabbed her hand. She paused, observing his large hand covering hers before giving him a questioning look.

"Hey, don't let today get you down. I'm not easy to drift with," he reminded her. A corner of his mouth turned up at the understatement, but she remained serious.

"I know. Last night I reread your file and used the database to access information on how to successfully drift. A lot of good it did," she snorted derisively. Before he could interrupt, she carried on, "I want to be a good partner for you, Soul."

Ah, so that's what she was doing so late last night. A soft smile crossed his face; of course she'd sacrifice sleep for researching, the nerd. But what really struck him was that she did all that work so she'd be better for him. He wasn't used to someone caring about him like that, what with growing up as the familial disgrace. Wes had looked out for him, but he had also kept himself in mind. Maka had given up her self-importance to expand her knowledge and be a good partner for him.

Maka waved the hand he wasn't holding in front of his face, and he startled from his thoughts.

"Are you alright?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, I'm great," he grinned toothily. She smiled back. "So," he went on, there's still half a day to kill. How about lunch?"

"You and your food," Maka shook her head, but her smile never wavered. Soul was reluctant to drop her hand as they headed toward the dining hall, but she gave him a small squeeze before letting go. She walked at his pace, back to her normal self and talking his ear off about anything and everything. She didn't expect much by way of response from him, and he appreciated that.

He had a damn cool partner.