I tried to clean, but if i missed any grammar, please tell me. THX. its not as long as i wanted it to be, but this chapter has a lot of information in it, and explains just about everything. The beginning is about to begin. If that makes any sense at all whatsoever. is whatsoever even one word? ... sigh. English...

Maka woke up in the Darkmans arms, and she quickly tried to get away from him as quickly as possible.

"Calm down. You simply fell asleep when I took you to reality. Its normal for that to happen." He then looked up at a house. "Is this your apartment?"

Maka suddenly realized she was back in death city, in her apartment, in her room. But how? The windows were open, it was a nice day, but it was silent here, so unlike death city. Where was everyone?

"Y-yes, this is."

"Follow me." The Dark man walked calmly into the rest of apartment, as if nothing was wrong. He opened her door, and saw something she didn't expect to see.

Soul and Blair, perfectly healed… but asleep?

"What? Why aren't they hurt?"

"Maka, here we go. Come here."

Soul, dead asleep on the couch, snoring away peacefully without a care in the world. The man stopped at Soul's side, and took of his gloves. To her surprise, they were human hands. After this, he also took off his hood, revealing a normal human face. Now Maka was extremely confused. His long brown hair was shorter on one side than the other, his face was longer like her fathers, but clearly was younger. His blue eyes were almost like an icy ocean, and yet they showed no sign of revenge or anger.

"I know you don't understand whats going on, but I will explain to the both of you as soon as we revive Soul."

"From what?"

"The Madness."

The Man took her hands, and placed them on soul, beneath his own hands. He closed his eyes, and began to think. She silently did the same, not sure what was going on.

"This is going to hurt."

"Wha-."

Suddenly the man took out a small knife, stabbing her in the heart. Maka cried out in pain as it stung deeply. Her mind was beginning to fade, her eyes blurry with death. How could she have trusted him so easily!

The Man watched her suffering, and then it came out. Her bright blue Soul. The man took it gently in his fingers, and slowly dug them into her soul. Her body writhed from the strange sensation, twitching madly. Finally, he found it. A small piece of pink, right in the center… a witches Soul. Carefully he pulled it out, trying not to hurt the delicate soul too much. Taking it out, he removed the dagger from her, and placed back her soul. Maka awoke with a start, breathing heavily.

"How could you! I trusted you!"

"Calm down Maka. I didn't actually stab you. That weapon allows me to take the soul from the body and still put it back. This will all be explained to you both soon."

She looked down at her chest, to see no blood at all.

"You could have at least told me…"

"I doubt you would have believed me."

Which was true. If someone told you they were going to stab you with a knife, would you let them? Of course not! She noticed his hands cupped, and sat back up into a kneeling state, looking over at what was in his hands. A small fiery pink light was flickering around, as if it was dancing.

"Is that… the witches Soul?"

"Not exactly. This is your power. You have extra power in your soul, two separate pieces. I took one out, but it may mean that the other wont function because this one is gone."

"Are you going to put that into soul?"

"Exactly."

The Man pulled out a pocket watch, and snapped it open, revealing Soul's soul. It was flickering softly, fading and suffering from being ripped apart. He took the small power and placed it inside his Soul, suddenly making it grow much brighter and looked more like a flame than sparks. Gently, the man pushed his soul back down into his chest, and removed the dagger.

Souls eyes shot open with a gasp, making maka cry out from being startled. He looked around at where he was… in his apartment?

"I told you it would work."

"Soul!" Maka jumped onto his body, hugging him tightly and nuzzling his chest. Thank god she could still be with him. She was slightly scared it wouldn't work and shed never see him again…

"Maka… where are we?"

"In our apartment, I think." She said shyly. Maka pushed herself off of him, and they both turned towards the man, who was currently seating himself on their coffee table.

"So will you explain to us whats going on now?"

" the Madness."

"… The madness?"

"Walk with me." He stood up, motioning for them both to follow. Maka was first to move, Soul began to follow. She trusted him more than he did, but he wasn't sure yet what to believe or think of any of this.

Once outside, they saw the empty streets, a few people sleeping. As they came closer and closer to the school, the heart of the city, they saw a purple, dark flickering light.

"What is that thing?"

"The madness. Its taken over all of Death City itself… Even lord Death."

Turning the corner, they suddenly saw it.

Hundreds of meisters, weapons, and people, fast asleep on the ground.

"The madness has everyone locked into a dream state, where everyone is living a never ending nightmare."

"But the sickness, and the attacks, and the pain…"

"It's only a dream. Everything in the dream world is a distorted version created by the madness itself."

"So the first attack…"

"That was an illusion. The madness has created its own demons in itself, torturing its victims. That was likely one of my collegues I had summoned to try and question you about the whereabouts of you people. I know about your team Maka, and I knew you would be the only ones able to help. But the madness of course distorted this, making him look like a psychopath chainsaw attacker. The Black Man you saw was likely me, but the madness made me look like a mass murderer Kishin, and even made up some of my actions. For example, I did not stab you with Soul's handle. The Madness made you imagine it."

"But it all felt so real… How is this even possible?" Soul asked, staring around the city for any more kinds of movement.

"I don't know. You see, I was summoned by Lord Death, but when I came, the city had already completely fallen to the madness. I can travel between the world and the madness, which is why I assumed Lord Death called me. He must have known."

"But why can't we remember any of it?" Maka had had enough and kept her eyes away from the people, and stared at the Dark man.

"The madness likely forced you to forget. Now that you're back in the real world, perhaps you will remember. But of course, it will take time." Maka and Soul looked at each other.

"So you can also transfer souls trapped inside madness?"

"Yes. You see, because this was a mass take over, the madness isn't as strong on any individual Soul, but on a cluster of Souls, making it possible to take them out, and back to the real world. Because weapons have half a witches Soul, it makes it harder to pull them through than it does with normal people and meisters. In result, I have to separate the Soul from the Witches soul through transfer. After I arrive here though, I am able to put it back, as if it was never separated from the first place. I had a small spell released to make all weapons go to sleep. They need to be transferred first, because if they go last, the madness will have a greater effect, and it will be much more difficult to bring them through."

"I understand now. But… does this mean, everyone in Death City is asleep right now?"

"Everyone except for you two that is." He said, leading them back to their own apartment. As they headed back into the door, the dark man began digging through their fridge. Picking up a sandwhich, he turned to face them.

"How do we help." Maka said. The man smiled.

"I knew you would be up for it. Your mother always said you were a fighter." Mention of her mother sent a slight shock through her body.

"You know my mother?"

"Kami? Of course. One of the greatest meisters out there."

"How… How is she?"

"Maka… I know its been a long time, but I will explain it all as soon as I can. Right now though, we have a much larger problem on our hands.

"Right." Soul turned around.

"So how is this going to work." He asked, his voice much calmer, and back to its normal self.

"I need your help. First, we have to transfer over the rest of your team; death the kid and his weapons, as well as black star. I will handle Kid; I should be able to make contact with him. He is a shinigami after all. But you two… you need to defeat Blackstar."

"How? Do we just knock him out?"

"No. Youll have to kill him."

"What!" They both cried out.

"That's the only way to free the Soul from the Madness. You must understand though, you will not look like yourselves to him. You will likely look like some sort of demented black cloaked KKK member."

"That's a little far, isn't it?"

"It was the only thing I could think of at the moment. Would you rather I had said crooked twisted black hooded Nazi?"

"Alright, I get it. But you don't exactly have the best words to describe your versions of evil people…"

"Any way," Maka began. "How do we do this?"

"I will be your transport. When you defeat Black Star, a purple Soul will appear from him. You will need to bring it to me, as well as Tsubaki's Soul. Hers will be more red than his, due to the witches Soul."

"How do we bring them to you?"

"Here." The man takes out a long tube, resembling some what to a map carrier. "Place any souls you collect in here. This will keep them safe, and guard them from any intruding madness. Bring them to me, and I can transfer them all back to this world."

Maka and Soul nodded in agreement. This was going to be a difficult mission… Maka had never played as the bad guy before, and wasn't looking forward to it. Would she be able to just kill someone that easy? The thought made her cringe, and have second thoughts. Noticing this, Soul tried to make it seem less… evil.

"We have to Maka. If we don't, they'll be trapped in there forever."

"Yeah, but…"

"Its going to be okay." He said, trying to look into her eyes. She avoided his face, knowing that if she looked, he would convince her without any more hesitation.

"I don't know if I can do it though. Just knowing that-."

"But technically, hes not even real. Theyre all just imaginary people trapped in a dream world. So technically you wont actually be killing him."

"Nothing there actually happens, right?"

"Technically."

"Does that mean, that scene in the fire, and at the hospital… was just my imagination?"

"Whats that supposed to mean? I remember all that."

"So it really did happen?"

"Maka, youre not making any sense."

"What do you remember?"

"Maka… Everyone not only lives connected… but they also live in their own world as well. You may have imagined events that took place with Soul that didn't actually happen. Of course, they are only suddle differences though. Most of the events between everyone are the same, but they all vary from person to person." The Dark man explained.

Makas heart dropped. Everything that happened between them… was it all just her imagination? Did this mean everything shed been feeling… All that pain, that happiness, that feeling of belonging, was not even real? It was all just a dream? Even that kiss… A surge of pain went through her body. She couldn't stand herself right now. How could she have imagined herself being with him like that? How could she have fooled herself so easily? Doubts and frustrations that had disappeared began to scratch at her mind again.

"I… I need a minute." Maka tore herself away from Soul's confused gaze, out into the streets. Soul was after her in seconds. Why was she always running away from her problems like this?

"Maka!" He called after her. She stopped, but refused to turn around. "You cant keep running like this! Ever since that incident in the fire, even in the madness world, you've been doing nothing but running from me! Why!"

"Because… I don't… I don't know! I don't know what happened and what didn't, im so confused!"

"What…?"

"Soul… do you remember anything special from when we were trapped? What about in the hospital?"

"I…" Soul began, but his voice dropped off. Something must have happened between them, that happened in her mind, but not in his. Did he reject her? Did he do something horrible, and now is finding out that never happened? What could she possibly be talking about?

"Maka, I don't know. The only thing I can remember is when that guy tackled you in the alley and…"
His voice trailed off, a blush swept over his face, knowing what he was about to say next. "… and we kind of confessed to each other. Not much else." He looked to the ground. Why though, he was unsure. It was unlike him to be shy at all, let alone around Maka. But this feeling made his body do things it didn't normally do.

" So then in the white room…"

"Yeah. I had assumed we both knew. That's why I was acting kind of strange, I guess…"

"No, it wasn't strange."

! He looked up at her.

"Something like that happened in my world too." She blushed. He felt like he was about to stumble backwards into the cement. They both had an imaginary scene of them together, yet it didn't really happen? This was becoming too confusing.

"So then were still..."

"Yeah. Were still." She beamed, looking up at him, her doubts and her sadness completely gone. The two of them began to walk back to the apartment, Maka holding onto Soul's hand as if she hadnt done so for a long time.

"Sorry for causing so much, Soul."

"Eh. Cool guys can deal with it. Im happy as long as you are."

"You know what Soul?" She said, walking ahead of him, her hand dragging him along behind her.

"Mmm?"

She turned around, her hair fluttering in a graceful way as her green eyes suddenly were in front of him, being lit up like the sun as if they were bright emeralds near the sea…

"I love you."