#young!stein

He was forced to plead insanity. He had quite the record. Cruelty to animals, and some people thought he’d willingly given his partner Marie to that Kishin they fought. That was a lie, but it was believed anyway. How could they think he’d do that to his partner? Especially Marie... She lost her eye in that fight. He’d gained a newfound fear of heights..

 He was given some kind of test, which he failed. He was sent to the Psych Ward of the hospital he and Marie had been recovering in, after that fight. However. The doctors at this ward seem cruel. Not to the other patients. Just to him. He has no idea, but one of the kids he put into a coma had a friend at this hospital. The head of the Psych Ward, who was just waiting for a chance to get his hands on Stein.

Light envelops me for a moment before I snap out of it. Electricity coursed through every inch of my body, smothering me and my thoughts. I jolt about, choking on saliva and something that tastes like iron. Why am I bleeding? That’s not right. I’ve studied what they’re doing to me. The normal voltage shouldn’t make me bleed. Is this on purpose? I just resisted taking some fucking poison, what the hell?

What’s with the sudden cruelty?

More light and dark flashes, as if I could see the electricity going through my eyes. It’s hard to describe from my perspective. If I were one of the doctors, I’d probably say that my eyes rolled back and I screamed until my voice was rough and sore. My ears are ringing. Everything spins... Why am I here..? Where is Marie? There’s not even enough time for me to think before another wave of sparks shoot into my brain again.

Who knows how much time passes, who knows how much fun they’re having. Yeah, laugh now.. Call me a freak.. It’s fine. I am a freak, always have been. See how much I give a shit.

I turn over in-- my bed... They must have moved me here after I passed out. Not sure how long I was out, but long enough for it to now be visiting hours. Must have been a while. I can hardly even bring myself to speak, much less move on my own. A couple orderlies bring me to.. Wherever it is that the visitors are allowed. When I look up, there she is. Marie, sitting across the table from me.

My words aren’t even stopped in my throat. They’re stopped before I can even grasp them in my head. They go by so quickly. I can’t process things right. I know what they did to me.. I get that it’s messed with my head.... Yet I don’t.

I lean forward and set my head in my palms for a moment.

“Franken...?” She asks me, cautiously. She has a new eye patch...

“Franken I came to check up on you..” She leans forward a little and notices I’m shaking. I’m not trying to shake. Stop shaking dammit. She sets a hand on my arm and something in me urges me to immediately pull away. My eyes widen greatly and her look of worry increases.

I manage to choke out the words “I’m sorry.” before sinking back into my palms. My nails dig into my scalp. My breathing is off and I can’t fix it. I have no control over my body. Everything’s wrong..

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong-- “Wrong!” Oh shit.. Did that come out of my mouth?? It did...

Marie jumps slightly, and the room goes silent. My breathing just gets worse and tears spill from my eyes. My hands fall to the table and my head follows onto my arms. She takes my hands and immediately I feel a little clearer. I grip her hands in return and start to mutter.

“I don’t understand... Someone help me...” Yet in the back of my head I hear..

You deserve this. We deserve this. We hurt those people. In their eyes, that’s wrong. This is punishment. But it felt so good, didn’t it~

I get a strange feeling. As if reliving my crimes. Except this time instead of elation I feel dread and guilt. That’s new for me. Extremely new. I grip her hands harder, but it feels like they aren’t there anymore. I look up and she’s there, staring me in the face. “You’re starting to freak me out, Franken. I-I’m here to help, okay? I’m here to help you get better. I want to help,” She grips my hands tighter. I find joy in thee pain. That means it’s real. I can feel it. I don’t care if it hurts. Yet before I can do anything more, an orderly comes over and yanks me from her grasp. He says something about hurting visitors, or physical contact. Something...

Whatever it was I scowled at it and went back to sliding my hands through my hair. I can’t stop doing that. My impulse control has been suffocated by electricity. Marie says something to the guard that I can actually hear. Everything about her is so clear.

“He wasn’t hurting me. I want to help him.” She gets up and moves her chair closer to me, as if in spite of the guy. Yeah. That’s Marie. She has to be real. She’s a firecracker. It makes a smile appear on my face for a moment, but then she puts a hand on my cheek. She pushes some of my bangs back, muttering to me. It relaxes me completely. My nails let go of my scalp, I shudder, and I go back to being a blank canvas. Even my breathing improves. I look up at her, vision still fuzzy from tears I don’t care to wipe away.

“What... What are these..?” She strokes her thumb over my temple. I imagine the extra volts must have left a mark somehow. Either way, she noticed it. It stings a little at the touch, but I don’t care. It’s her touch. She’s like an angel to me right now. But the guard gets.. Upset. Angry that she noticed. He moves and suddenly another orderly is taking me back to my room. As soon as they touch me I try to get away. I’m fighting against them and scrambling for Marie. Shouting for her to get somewhere safe, yet to help me at the same time. I feel so selfish...

She’s trying to say something, but being ushered out. I push out of the grasp of the doctors, adrenaline getting to my numbed system. For a moment I’m running towards her. Then there’s a hand in my hair and I’m yanked back. They either did or didn’t mean to yank me so hard, but my head slams into the wall. Things go even fuzzier and my body twitches as I pass out.

This place is awful. He’s in there all alone with cruel doctors and there’s nothing she can do but go back to her room? No, no way in hell is her Meister going to be stuck being legally tortured. She tells the nurse she has to use the restroom. There’s always a mirror in there. She shouldn’t be standing for long, still recovering... Not that she cares. She heals quickly, and is already most of the way there. Meanwhile Stein’s injuries are probably only getting worse right now. Who knows what punishments they’re coming up with.

She hurriedly locks the restroom door and dials Lord Death. He picks up and immediately she shushes him. “P-Please, be quiet or they’re going to get upset. Maybe. I don’t know how many people here are like that but-”

“Wait wait-- young lady..! Are you alright? What’s going on...?” Lord Death indeed lowered his voice for her, feeling her rushed distress.

“There’s not a lot I can do.. I’m covered in bandages, th-they took Stein.. I.. Did you tell them to take him there?”

“Take him where, Marie?” He’s quite confused at this.

“I don’t know what it’s called but they’re torturing him..! He has these.. Burns on the sides of his head-- H-His temples, that’s the one..!” Her mind’s been a bit scattered since that fight, and this situation doesn’t exactly help one to think. Thank the gods he seems to understand, and even better. He believes her. He wants to make sure every one of his students trusts him, so he’s willing to investigate. Anyway Marie is an amazing student and a powerful weapon. He doesn’t want to be on her bad side.

“Alright, I’ll send a teacher I trust to escort you in to investigate safely.” He nods. She bows in thanks.

“I-I have to go, they’re going to wonder why I’ve been in here so long-” There’s a knocking at the door, and she quickly hangs up. She flushes the toilet and runs the sink for a bit, then walks back out. Smart kid. She goes back to her room and waits for the teacher. He arrives the next day. A somewhat young teacher, as teachers go. Not like it matters. She wants to figure out what’s going on. The teacher doesn’t matter, only as protection if needed. Lord Death knows she can handle herself in battle, but he wants these doctors to know he isn’t having their shit.

She practically storms in once it’s visiting hours. They tell her that he’s in ‘therapy’ at the moment. One of the patients makes some kind of pantomime at her. Akin to that of electric shock. “Well can I have a tour while I wait?~” She asks sweetly. Little blonde girl that could look twelve or twenty, gullible nurse? Yeah, she’s in. He lets her look around, especially since she has an escort from the academy. The teacher informs the nurse that he’s there to make sure none of the patients hurt her like last time. He made sure to get all the info he needed.

As soon as she hears screaming she runs for the source of the sound. It’s crackled and hurting and hardly even there, but she knows who it is. She knows it’s her Meister. The teacher is a bit confused, but follows her. Marie turns a corner and sees doctors dragging Stein back to his room. Blood coats his body and some even drains from his ear. She knew they’d be up to something fucked. The teacher sees and immediately shouts for them to stop. They do so, drop Stein, and run. He goes after them, she goes for Stein. She drops to her knees beside him, checking his pulse. Still there, still alive. She holds him close.

He’d become addicted to her company. He didn’t know she was the same.

Marie’s soul flares. She’s pissed now, and the doctors decided to run back down this hallway. Her arm transforms and slams right into the one’s kneecap. There’s a bone-shatter sound, a cry of pain, and he falls over. The other stops and shouts something about her getting in trouble for that. He goes to grab her arm when he’s stopped. Stein’s sat up. His palm shot right for what was in range. In this case, the doctor’s groin. His wrist twists. There’s a crackle and an almost thunderous noise, and the doctor flies back into the wall. Marie had started resonating with his soul without even realizing. Without even being in full weapon form. She feels a tad drained, but she’s mostly grinning at how fucking cool that just was. The teacher has come back, and drags them to a mirror, where Lord Death promptly rips them new assholes.

Stein passes back out, but not before muttering a thousand apologies about her eye.. It hurts, but she’ll be okay. She’ll live with it.