He had been chained while they beat her. He had struggled against the chains, but was under orders to not doing anything that would arouse suspicion, that they had to endure. Shinigami-sama himself had asked it of them.

If he had known what they were getting into, he would have said no. He had been forced to watch these men work the two of them nearly to death for the last 2 weeks, and then each night, watch them beat Marie into unconsciousness before they turned on him. They were sadistic amateurs, but he had to admit that brute force was one way to keep a work force in line.

Marie collapsed against the wall beside the other woman who was being beat, and he watched as the guards drew back their feet to kick the nearly unconscious woman.

"Stop!" The scream tore itself from his throat before he could stop it.

The guards looked up at him and he gritted his teeth as they moved to him.

"Got us a martyr, do we? Which one are we sweet on?" The lead guard teased, as if talking to an old friend.

Stein spit, and they cut his bonds loose dragging him in front of the women. Marie lifted her head for a second, but then it fell back to look at the ground, blood running down her chin, her eye blackened and her face bruised.

"This way they can see what you're doing for them," a guard laughed, and drew his fist back, slamming it into Stein's face. The fist crashed into his face again, but he refused to move. Marie was nearly unconscious, huddled against the wall behind him with another woman, and Stein wasn't going to allow them to harm her any further.

That unfortunately meant that he would be taking whatever punishment they had in store for both women. His face was impassive though as they came towards him holding a red hot poker. It slid into his side and Stein nearly screamed, the metal piercing deep into his abdomen, searing everything that it came in contact with. Steam billowed from the wound briefly as they withdrew the poker and he hit his knees.

The man holding it laughed, placing the tip back in the fire and Stein took a shuddering breath, glancing over at Marie and the other woman. Both had been beat severely, and he wasn't even sure if the other woman was going to recover.

The feel of the poker touching his neck made him hiss out in pain, but he refused to move, knowing that the pain would be ten times worse if he did. Burns would heal; damage to his throat when he had no way to perform surgery could kill. The man holding the poker placed his foot on Stein's chest and kicked the meister backwards, causing him to sprawl out, the guards placing their feet on his arms and legs as the man reheated the poker a third time. Stein gritted his teeth, wondering where the poker was going to land this time.

It was his chest, and he jerked, succeeding only in pressing the poker deeper against his flesh as the other man looked down on the stitched skin. "Seems someone else got to him first, doesn't it, boys?"

The assembled group laughed, and one of the men looked over at the two women. They stepped away from Stein, the leader grabbing Stein's screw and yanking upwards, forcing the meister to stand up awkwardly.

"Hey, boss. He seems to have a thing for that blonde one. Let me have her for a bit, see how he reacts." There was laughter in the man's voice, and Stein felt himself tense.

The leader laughed. "Do whatever you want, like I give a fuck."

"I'll kill you all," Stein growled out, "if you even think of touching her."

The man was already loosening his belt. "Yeah, right. You're as dangerous as a teddy bear." The others laughed as the man knelt over Marie's now unconscious form, her blood pooling around her.

He touched her shoulder, and Stein acted. It took but a thought to send the man in front of him flying, his wavelength having already dealt with the man; he wouldn't be waking up again. A second later Stein had the hot poker in hand and buried through the man's skull that had touched Marie's shoulder, the man mewling pitifully as his body refused to believe for a long moment that he was dead.

He turned to look at the other four, and was through them, a whirlwind of death, before they could even get to the safety of the only building in the entire area. Stein took a shuddering breath as he finished, his long finger gently lying against Marie's throat, testing her pulse. It was weak, but stable. The other woman wasn't as lucky.

She was dead.

Stein just shook his head, and wrapped his tattered lab coat tightly around Marie's still form, hoping it would be enough to staunch the flow of blood. He moved to the building, sitting the unconscious death scythe against the wall before stepping in and quickly dealing with the seven souls that were inside. He growled as he found that there were no medical supplies, but he grabbed the papers they had been sent to get.

'A damn waste. Two weeks of being tortured, in an effort to get these papers without arousing suspicion. It may have cost Marie her life!' Stein's grip tightened on the papers and he hurriedly folded them to avoid destroying them. 'Shinigami-sama will have to accept that I was not going to allow Marie to be killed or raped as long as I was alive.' He slipped the papers into his lab coat's pocket and picked the unconscious woman up gently, resting her head against his chest. He made one stop before leaving- and that was to destroy the lock that held the rest of the captives. He split the small amount of rations that had been in the building with them, and then walked out into the night with Marie.

A/N: Flashback to the why he was in the desert walking, carrying a limp Marie.

I don't own Soul eater.