"Milla, what happened?"

Kaine was immediately concerned the second she walked in the front door, his eyes on her freshly bandaged hand. He didn't even notice as Maka and Soul filed in the door behind her, peeling their shoes off next to hers.

"Tripped. You remember Soul from this morning, and his Meister Maka?" she smiled sitting her bag down on the couch.

"Yeah, hey guys," he muttered still not even looking over at them. "What did you trip on? I mean the desk didn't cause that!"

"I tripped over my own feet. Does it really matter? Get changed, we're going out."

"Out where?"

"Professor Stein's lab. We're all going to work on our resonance rates together, Milla said it would be fine," Maka said with a smile.

"Whoa! We're going to your old man's lab? Why wasn't I warned?" Kaine hissed backing away from her as if she was going to drag him kicking and screaming.

"We found out at the end of class. It wasn't like I knew all along or something. Just get ready, will you? Maka, Soul, make yourselves at home," Milla laughed ducking into her room.

The fact that Kaine was not happy about the sudden plans for the afternoon was a little more than obvious. They all walked through the city chatting about the events of the day, skipping over her incident with Kyle while Kaine sulked along beside them, hands crammed in his pockets. The closer they got to the lab he started falling behind more and more, shifting his eyes to anything other than the looming stitched building before them.

"Kaine, really, you have to stop worrying so much. We need to work on our resonance rate just like everyone else…" Milla sighed, at this point she was actually dragging him along.

"Stop worrying? Do you listen to yourself when you speak? The man hates me!" he sobbed looking at Soul as if he expected him to help.

"Did you expect him to be nice to the guy who's living with his only daughter, man? Maka's old man is the same way…" Soul laughed.

"What do you mean?"

They all stopped just short of the front gate gawking back at Soul trying to understand what he'd just said. He stood there looking back at them like it was as plain as day.

"You got to be kidding me? Maka's old man hates me because I'm a boy who lives with his precious daughter. Did you all never think that maybe Stein is the same way? He doesn't like Kaine because he's living with Milla, that's all that there is to it. He's being an overbearing dad in his own way…" Soul sighed running his fingers through his hair uncomfortably.

"I somehow doubt that's what it is," Kaine mumbled, blushing slightly.

"Yeah, I don't think that Papa would be worried about something like that," Milla said crossing her arms over her stomach.

"Really? Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?"

"Soul, really…" Maka snapped, glaring over at him.

"What? It's not like it's something you have to search for! It's out there for everyone to see and Stein has eye's you know? I know he doesn't really seem like the type, but I'm sure it bothers him that his little girl is growing up. I bet he worries in his own way, even if he isn't as up front about it as Death-Scythe is about it."

"Let's just go, all right? It really doesn't matter why he doesn't like Kaine…" Milla groaned dragging Kaine through the gate.

Stein was seated out in front of his lab, puffing on a cigarette waiting for her to arrive. For a moment he glanced between her and Kaine to Soul and Maka, she hadn't thought that maybe he didn't want anyone else at his lab, but if Soul and Maka were there she hoped he would be less inclined to pick on Kaine.

"Hello Professor. Milla said it would be all right if we tagged along, I hope you don't mind," Maka said bowing her head slightly to him.

"Of course not. As long as you're working on your resonance rates, it's not a problem. It might actually be good for you two to be here, you can show Milla the Witch Hunter," he said waving back at Maka with a small smile.

Milla's eyes snapped over to Maka and Soul, gawking at them.

"You can already do Witch Hunter?" she gasped.

"Well, yeah. I mean sometimes it doesn't quite work out…" Maka said blushing.

"You can do it in the first place! That's amazing."

"Can't you resonate with Kaine?"

She suddenly looked away, unable to look her in the eye. The only time she'd ever worked on resonance with Kaine was with Stein present and it never ended well. Kaine was always so nervous something always ended up going wrong. She didn't blame Kaine in the slightest, she was always so worried about not being able to impress her father that she probably wasn't helping the situation at all.

"Not yet," she admitted.

"Well that just means that we all have a lot of hard work to do, right?" Maka cheered extending her hand to Soul.

"Right!"

She watched closely as Soul turned into his Scythe form, the red and black blade much longer than Maka herself. They were impressive together to say the least, the way she spun him around effortlessly as if he were nothing more than a feather to her. A deadly feather, but a feather non the less.

"All right then Maka, show us the Witch Hunter," Stein sighed standing up from his chair to join them in the barren yard.

"Right Professor. Let's go, Soul Resonance!" Maka called out.

The actual act of resonating a Meister's soul with that of it's Weapon could prove to be difficult for most partners to achieve. Watching Maka and Soul resonate the Witch Hunter was daunting. Milla wasn't sure if she even knew how to obtain the level of connection they had and she had been with Kaine since a very young age. She had hand picked him…moved to his home to study with him. But Maka and Soul made it look so effortless. The pace was slower than she knew it should be, but the fact that the blade was able to morph, turning a prismatic blue, extending well over the length it had been was impressive.

"Now, come at me…"

Her heat made a funny lurch when Stein spoke, the size of the Witch Hunter was scary. She wasn't sure if she would be able to dodge something like that if it were aimed at her and the fact that it was aimed at her father made her chest tight. She knew he would avoid it, he was the best there was, but still the images her mind created worried her. Maka started off at a run toward Stein, the blade of the Witch Hunter looming behind her as she tried to gain momentum. She let out a fierce cry, swinging the blade over her head at Stein and Milla physically jerked. Kaine's hand rested on her shoulder and even though he had to stretch to reach her, it was comforting.

"He'll be all right," he whispered watching the scene with tight eyes as if he weren't so sure himself.

The blade sailed toward Stein and he didn't even flinch. She refused to close her eyes, forcing herself to watch. He wanted her to see this, the bond between Meister and Weapon at its strongest. To her surprise Stein caught the blade of the Witch Hunter between his hands, holding little Maka at bay. Even so, she could see the force he had to put behind his block to keep from loosing his balance. If it were anyone other than Stein, they would have taken a fatal blow. But the blade shattered between his hands dissolving back into Soul's normal weapon form, Maka panting heavily as she used him for support.

"Good. Now if you can just raise the rate in which you achieve that resonance and maintain it. The Witch Hunter should be second nature to you Maka, but it's still impressive that you can use it to that extent at your young age," Stein said with a smile. "Milla, shall we try this?"

With his attention directed at her and Kaine she could feel her legs go numb. Trying to hide her trembling hands she reached out for Kaine.

"What kind of Weapon is he?" Soul asked after returning to his normal form.

"Kaine is a pike. Sort of a mix between a spear and an axe," Stein muttered pulling off his glasses.

"This should be interesting…"

"Indeed."

She had always thought Kaine was an amazing weapon. When she first found him Stein was disappointed that it meant she was going to have to move away to be with her Weapon, but she was entranced by him the first time she saw a photo of him. The happy smiling boy with his mother, it made her heart ache for the mother she never got to know. She chose him before she even knew him and it was amazing that they got along so well despite his fear of Stein. Kaine in his weapon form was taller than she was, taller than Stein. The end was tipped with a sharp blade that acted more like a counterbalance for the heavy axe attached to the top of the pike. The axe itself was sharp, several jagged points poking out at strange angles, crimson inlay on the pole with the black blades.

"We can do this all right? We can we just have to focus," Milla demanded gripping Kaine tightly.

"We haven't been able to do it before now and we don't know anything like the Witch Hunter…" Kaine sighed, his voice echoing from the weapon.

"That doesn't matter, I'm not a Scythe Meister and you're not a Scythe. We have to make our own path, we can do this! Soul Resonance!"

"So, in the end, we still couldn't do it, hm?" Kaine wheezed flopping down next to her on the step leading into the lab.

"Nope…"

The resonance had started out well enough. It seemed like they might actually get somewhere for once. And then Milla saw the way Stein was watching her. It wasn't the usual look her gave her when he was trying to understand whatever idiotic thing she was doing at the time. He was watching her with hopeful eyes. He wanted to see her succeed for more than just an experiment. It was suddenly like her soul wavelength just seized up, unable to move at all. Kaine had tried with everything he had to reach her, but she just stood there like a statue.

"What does everyone looked so bummed about? Stein trying to take someone's organs again?" Spirit mumbled causing her eyes to snap up to the red headed Death-Scythe.

"Milla wasn't able to get her soul resonance to work…" Maka sighed hanging her head as if it somehow meant she failed.

"I'm a monumental failure. What can I say?" Milla chuckled, smiling brightly to try and hide that fact that she really wanted to cry.

Her father just stood there leaning against the building, waiting for her to either recover or give up. She just didn't know how to tell him she didn't have the will to try again, not with him looking at her like that.

"Well I brought something that might cheer you up, little Stein…" Spirit laughed holding out a thin book to her.

"Hm? What's this, Spirit?" she mumbled pulling the book away from him gently.

The second she peeled the cover open, she couldn't help but tilt her head. She didn't understand exactly what she was looking at. It just seemed to be a photo album of Spirit and Stein while there were in school at the DWMA. Every now and again a strand of golden hair blurred the picture, as if someone were diving away from the camera. Turning the page she was greeted with a picture of Stein glancing away from the camera with a scowl on his face, Spirit who was taller at the time trying to get him to look at the camera and then a beautiful blond girl smiling at the camera brightly. Her dark olive eyes and wildly wavy blond hair made her look erratic.

"Is this…is this my Mama?" she mumbled gawking down at the bubbly looking girl.

Everyone crowded around her suddenly, except for Stein who didn't move an inch, all of them peering over her shoulder to see the photos. Each picture they had of her became more and more pronounced, the girl went from shy smiles to happy laughter and in a few they even managed to get Stein to look at the camera. But he still remained scowling. Almost as if he really didn't like the fact that someone was taking his picture.

"Sure is. Beauty isn't she? Abigail Wells, that was your Mama's name. It took me a long time of searching, but that's every photo I could find with her in it," Spirit cheered giving her a thumbs up.

"She really was pretty Milla," Maka sighed next to her.

"I still cant believe a woman let Stein get that close to her!" Soul gasped, Kaine nodding his head in agreement.

"Silly, it wasn't like that at all. My Mama never had me…she died before I was ever born."

No one spoke a single word after her statement, watching her carefully as she ran her fingers over the pages gently. Stein had told her everything about her mother, her name and what she looked like, but this was the first time she'd ever seen a photograph of her. She was much more beautiful than she could have ever imagined. Even though she always thought she looked exactly like her father, there was definitely some of her mother in there too. She could hear Stein walking away, the metal door of the lab groaning closed, knowing she was about to tell a story he didn't want to hear.

"Mama had a rare disease. Well, really is was rare for women to have it. She had hemophilia. It's an x chromosome disorder that usually only manifests in men because they have two x chromosomes compared to a woman's one. There was an accident one day, on a mission and Mama was hurt really badly. Her Weapon partner even ended up dying shortly after she did. But there was nothing they could do to help her… Hemophiliac's have trouble with the clotting of their blood, so even small nicks can be troublesome to them. Mama was hurt so badly, there was no way for them to stop the bleeding. Papa and Spirit were her friends, they were there with her in the end and she asked for a child. That was the only thing she had wanted before she died… So Papa made me. When he said that I was a failed gene mapping experiment, he means that he failed to phase his own genes out. He didn't want any part of him to be carried on in her child, but he needed male DNA…" she rambled quietly turning the pages of the photo album slowly until she reached the blank page in the back of the book before closing it.

"He didn't want you to turn out like he did. You know he's afraid you'll be effected by the same madness that plagues him," Spirit sighed.

"I know," she said hugging the book to her chest. "I know he's scared. But I'm as sane as humanly possible. He should have realized that by now."

"I'm sure he does. Maybe he's just afraid to let you go…"

Spirit reached out patting her head gently before he moved past them into the lab. Stein was seated at his computer desk, his fingers typing away rhythmically at the keys, smoke from his cigarette billowing up over his head. For a moment Spirit just stood there glancing across the darkened room as he closed the door. Normally he wouldn't leave himself alone with Stein in this kind of situation, but there really wasn't anyway around it. He couldn't say what he needed to hear in front of Milla and the others.

"You know, just because you ignore her, it's not going to keep her sane Stein. She's a child crying out for a parents affections," Spirit mumbled inching closer to his desk warily.

"I'm not a parent like you, Spirit. You talked me into doing it in the first place. Why don't you take responsibility? I would have used your DNA if I didn't think the child would have come out with some kind of mental deficiency," Stein demanded, his voice as clam and indifferent as usual.

"I know I may have pressed the matter on you more than I should have, but it was our friends dying wish Stein. How could you ignore that? You had the means to give her what she wanted and even though you didn't want to have a child, you cant say that you're not proud of that girl in some way."

Stein's hands stopped on the keyboard, turning to glance at his former Weapon blankly.

"You think that I wish I hadn't created her?" he asked, tilting his head.

That look that he was giving him reminded Spirit so much of Milla it was a little amusing.

"No, I didn't mean for it to sound that way. If you didn't want her, you would have trashed the entire experiment. But you couldn't. Even though she turned out so much like you instead of Abby, you kept her."

"It would have been murder at that point Spirit."

"True. But you could have given her away to a family that couldn't have children of their own. But you kept her, saying that you were afraid she would be afflicted by the madness too. But I think you really wanted to keep her…because you loved her."

Stein sat there staring at him blankly, refusing to show any kind of emotion about the subject. Spirit knew that they weren't going to get any further on the matter. He shrugged lightly, shoving his hands in his pockets as he turned back to the doors.

"But then again, I'm probably wrong. Creating life was probably a grand experiment. Just remember, you decided to keep her, so you need to step up and treat her like the great daughter she is," he chuckled pulling the door open, leaving the mad scientist alone in his lab once more.

As soon as the door was closed Stein turned back to his computer and resumed his typing. Listening to the idol chatter that whispered through the doors about Abigail. When the noise finally died down, Spirit, Soul and Maka all gradually leaving the laboratory, Stein stopped typing. Trying to hear Milla and Kaine speaking, but there was nothing. Silence. The two of them were sitting right outside the doors where he had left them and they weren't moving. After a moment he reached over to the filing cabinet under his desk, pulling out a heavy binder. The cover was labeled in thick marker - Patient File : Milla S.

Flipping open the page he was greeted with a photo of himself and Abigail, two days before her accident. It was the only photo of the two of them alone and she had actually managed to make him smile slightly, tripping over her own feet as she snapped the picture. It was blurry, but it was still there. Her and him laughing. Turning the page it started with photo's of Milla. He had taken one every year since her birth, along with the photos she had sent him from the school in Kaine's home town. A chronologically arranged album of her entire life to date. He was proud of his daughter, even if she didn't quite know it yet.

Outside, Kaine and Milla stood staring up at the bleeding moon, they were going to give it one more shot. They could resonate their souls, they just had to believe. Milla gripped him tightly, smiling, knowing, trusting they were ready for this.

"Let's go, Soul Resonance!"