A New Experiment

A New Experiment





Prologue





Disclaimer: I do not own Atsushi Okubo's Soul Eater and gain no profit from its use. This is strictly a fan fiction.



Story Pairings: SteinxOC, SoulxMaka, mild SpiritxBlair





His 35th birthday passed without any regard. He refused to answer the knocks at his laboratory door, courtesy of dear little Maka and her weapon, Soul. Maka wasn't the "perfect" teacher's pet (especially when she protested dissections) and Evans left a lot to be desired, but out off all his pupils he noted that they—mostly Maka—were the first to pay him casual visits every so often and still went to him as students, even after they'd graduated to agent-status. Today, he was not obliging and stared at the security camera screen with mild interest. Soul scowled and mocked him vicariously through the camera and Maka wore a defeated look as she walked away, a present and her weapon's hand in tow.



She didn't let it show at first, but three days into Spirit's disappearance, Stein couldn't bear to be around her for very long. She cried, screamed, wailed, and sought after the mad professor as if he was hiding her father and could magically open the door that concealed the red-haired buffoon. Sadly, he couldn't and soon distanced himself from the young meister. She had endearment about her, his protégé, and in some queer way, he felt the need to be a surrogate in her father's absence. He'd been failing her in that respect.



He already felt a twinge of fault when Marie left a few years ago, but Spirit was different. Nothing known except that he was stumbling home drunk from The Chupa Cabra and blood found on the street a block from his doorstep. No one saw it coming, not even he sensed anything amiss until Blair noticed the Death Scythe's absence the following morning. Stein was confident he could find him shortly, but when 48 hours had passed, the morale of the search parties had waned heavily and the scientist felt a new kind of madness eating him alive.



For months he'd looked for leads and only a vague one came to mind every time. A kishin-soul had been running amuck in a city not far outside of the Mojave Desert surrounding Death City and it had a penchant for bleeding its victims dry—however, the offender was picky: healthy, sober, uninteresting people were targeted. Not meisters, not witches, and certainly not inebriated Death Scythes. Spirit didn't fit the profile, but no other evil soul in the territory was powerful—or intelligent—enough to take on Lord Death's favorite weapon.



Stein had long since forgotten that his cigarette went out while still being gnashed by his teeth.



"Very impolite, ignoring them like that." Kid's voice echoed from across the room.



Stein ignored the comment and groaned, "I don't recall inviting you in."



"You left one window horribly open with the others closed. Liz and Pattie insisted I leave them alone for now" the young reaper cringed at the disorder.



"Get out." was Stein's only response.



"You won't want me to, trust me"



"I beg to differ."



"We have a weapon we think you can use to find Death Scythe."



No response came from the professor. He had borrowed four other weapons during the search—that didn't mean they were any closer to finding his friend.



Kid amended his words as delicately as he could, "My father commands an audience with you at 8 o'clock tonight." With that, the young reaper (no longer a boy of fourteen) saw himself out.



~*~



"I've found a new partner for you to try out!" The reaper bounced with his usual pep.



"Is that so? Who died?" Stein asked bluntly.



Lord Death stood un-phased by the indifference in the meister's voice. "No one we know. A few retired agents have died of old age, but their weapons are not far behind them. They had a good run, crazy kids."



"You're saying the weapon's not academy-trained?"



"Yep! Fresh from Alaska! The woman and her meister were nomads, kept to themselves, and only went hunting kishin-souls when they crossed paths. Our agents didn't even know the two existed until last week! Now isn't that somethin'?" He chuckled.



"Sounds like you need new agents out there." Stein laughed at the incompetence of the Alaskan security. "With all due respect, Sir, what is all of this? We don't just recruit a rogue weapon out of the blue to hunt down a kishin-soul this dangerous."



"You don't trust my judgement." Suddenly Lord Death took a forebodingly serious tone.



The statement took Stein aback and reminded himself of his place. "Of course not. My apologies…" he tried to turn the subject away from insubordination, "How did the meister die?"



His tone softened, but his expressionless mask didn't show any deep remorse—just sympathy. "Shot in the head by a serial killer that was fleeing our agents. The weapon took sixteen bullets for her meister before they both went down."



"So she has a weapon's instinct. That's a good sign. What were their names?"



"The weapon's name is Rowan Parker, but she refuses to tell anyone her meister's name. Her parents reported her missing sixteen years ago, but want no contact with her now."



"Strange. You'd think they'd be ecstatic to hear that their daughter had finally been found…" The scientist's thoughts started reeling with hypotheses.



Lord Death could feel Stein's curiosity becoming palpable and laughed loudly and smacked the screw-head playfully with a ticket. "OK! Awesome, very good! Here's a plane ticket to Seattle, and agent Vasquez will meet you there. It's up to you two to book the charter flight to Fort Yukon! Have fun!"



Stein barely had time to register the fact that he'd just been slapped with a piece of paper and looked dismally down at the ticket.



"Stein." The reaper looked down at his finest meister and put a giant hand on the professor's shoulder, "Think of it as a new experiment."



Of course he wasn't going to disagree with his Lord's requests. He stared into the black, empty eye holes of that mask and at the hidden permission that was granted, the grey-haired man couldn't help but smirk. An opportunity to experiment on a human was rarely allowed and in some way, Stein knew the old reaper wasn't just doing this for Spirit's sake.



A new experiment…somehow the words didn't engender the excitement they should have. Stein could obviously see that he couldn't fully be himself again until his favorite weapon—his friend—was returned safely.