Author's Note: Thanks for all the feedback! This story only has a few more chapters left before I start on a new project!
Chapter 23: Infiltration Part 1
Maka sighed and thought over what Kate had said.
"Did you at least try calling her or sending her a text? I mean it's possible that she just went back to the dorms and fell asleep." Maka asked.
"We've tried calling her at least like 5 times now and Rachel is known to be a light sleeper. I would think at least one of the calls would wake her up if that was the case." Ashley piped up.
"Plus, we asked the manager of the building if they she had seen Rachel come back in, but she said no." Megan stated.
Maka frowned and looked over each of the girls faces. It didn't seem like they were lying about Rachel suddenly go missing, but why did they have to ask her for help?
'Even though they have been mean to me in the past, it wouldn't be right to just potentially let Rachel get killed if I could help in some way. I'm going to have to investigate where she could have possibly gone off to…'
Maka huffed and finally came to her decision.
"Okay I'll help you guys look for Rachel, but I'm going to need to ask people around the school when they last saw Rachel to get an idea of where she could have gone off to." Maka stated.
"What? We don't have that type of time! By the time you've asked around the school, Rachel could already be dead!" Kate cried out, about to lash out at Maka.
Ashley sighed and pulled Rachel back. "Kate, we'll just have to trust Maka's judgment on this; she has more experience than us after all in dealing with psychos and dangerous missions."
Kate pouted and wiped away a few stray tears that fell from her cheeks. "How long do you think it will take you to find her?"
Maka rubbed her head thoughtfully. 'Technically with my Soul perception, I could probably find where she is right now, but I need to come up with a plan before I just go trying to break in and save her.'
"I'll be able to find her more than likely tomorrow night. At school tomorrow, I'll interview a few people to try and get more details. That way I'll have an idea of who possibly kidnapped her and where she could be at." Maka reasoned.
All four girls sighed and nodded their heads in agreement. Just as they were about to turn around and leave though, Kate suddenly rushed back up to Maka and handed her a piece of paper.
"That's my phone number. Call me or text me any information you find. Got it?" Kate snapped.
Maka rolled her eyes. "Yeah okay, but don't expect me to be sending you any messages until I've collected enough information."
~X~
Maka nearly slid down the door in exhaustion once she finally made it back to the apartment.
'How do I keep ending up in situations like this?' Maka thought to herself with sigh.
"Hey what took you so long to get back Maka? I thought you were just picking up your medicine after you got out of the clinic." Soul asked, walking up to her.
"I did pick it up, but then your fangirls started to harass me." Maka replied back.
Soul's eyes narrowed and Maka noticed his fists tightened slightly. "Did they do something to you? You're not injured are you?"
Maka shook her head. "I'm fine Soul. They were just badgering me about finding their friend Rachel."
Soul looked confused at this so Maka continued on.
"Apparently, Rachel has gone missing. All of her friends were wondering where she went and I just happened to be standing by, so they rushed to me for help." Maka explained.
Soul frowned as he mulled over what Maka had just said. "Don't tell me that you agreed to help them? Aren't all of these girls the ones who have been messing with you?"
Maka nodded her head. "Yes they are, but I won't feel right if I just let Rachel die. What happens if her kidnapper goes after more DWMA students?"
Soul sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. "Why didn't you just use your Soul Perception to find her before heading home?"
Instead of answering Soul's question, Maka just huffed and walked over to the window.
Soul frowned and followed her to the window. After watching her for a few minutes, Soul came to a realization.
"You know where Rachel is at don't you?" Soul mumbled.
Maka gave him a side glance before looking out the window again. "I not only know where she is, but I know who her abductor is also." 'I would recognize that soul, even from miles away."
"If you knew that, then why didn't you just tell that to Rachel's friends?" Soul grumbled.
"Because then they would try to save her and more than likely end up captured also!" Maka retorted back.
"Rachel's not dead yet is she?" Soul asked suddenly.
Maka shook her head. "She's alive, but I don't know for how long. Travis must be using her as a hostage until I show up."
Soul's eyes widened at this. "Wait a minute, it's Travis who kidnapped her?! You should have said that earlier!"
Maka sighed and looked down. "Travis has just been using Rachel to get to his own needs. He really wants me, not her."
Soul growled and cracked his knuckles. "And what the hell does he want with you? Didn't you look up his past history?"
Maka nodded her head. "Travis is a soul collector. He likes to collect souls that he finds particularly interesting or strong. At his last school, there were incidents of students that had gone missing that people suspected Travis had some part in. Though they never found any evidence that Travis had committed the crimes, they still expelled him for doing other acts such as hitting teachers and students."
"So where do you fit into all of this? Why is Travis so interested in you?" Soul asked.
"Isn't it obvious? I have a grigori soul. Not only is that type of soul rare, but I'm sure Travis looked up the potential benefits he could get from adding it to his collection or just trying to find a way to get power from it." Maka stated.
Soul groaned and placed his hands on Maka's shoulders. "You are not going to go face Travis alone. I won't let you."
Maka sighed, but managed to let out a light laugh when Soul continued to wrap his arms around her.
"I know you weren't going to let me go alone, and I didn't want to go alone anyways. I need you to be with me in order for the plan I have in mind to work." Maka stated.
Soul grinned toothily at that. "You know, this sounds like we're finally going on a mission with each other again. Except that the school didn't notarize it and we could potentially get into severe trouble or danger."
Maka shrugged and gazed back up at Soul. "We've been through worse haven't we?"
~X~
The following morning, Maka walked over to her desk and grabbed her notebook that she liked to use to whenever she needed to detail out plans for a mission she was going on.
Just as Maka was about to leave her room to go wake up Soul, she noticed a crumpled up paper also on her desk.
Maka stared at it for a second, before deciding to open it back up. On the paper was just a short simple reminder she must have written to herself weeks ago.
Make sure to pick up mask and sax from Hiro's locker after school.
'Oh, this must have been before some performance we were about to have.' Maka mused to herself, before crumpling the paper back up and throwing it away into her trash bin.
'Now that I think about it, I haven't really done much as Emerald recently. With me getting sick and all, Masquerade can't really perform as usual. I'm pretty sure Travis doesn't care really, but I wonder how Hiro feels about it.'
Maka sighed and shrugged. "Performing is the last thing on my mind right now anyways." Maka mumbled under her breath, as she knocked on Soul's door.
"So, what's the plan for today?" Soul asked, as they walked to school.
"Well during break, I'm going to ask some NOT students what Rachel was doing in class yesterday. Hopefully, they might tell me something useful that could lead me to at least know how she ended up with Travis." Maka stated.
"That sounds fine with me, but I'm not sure they can give us too much. We should also ask around in our class if anyone saw Rachel walking around after school." Soul stated.
Maka nodded her head in agreement as they climbed up the stairs of the school. Stein's lesson for the day went by rather quickly and when he finally gave class a 10 minute break, Soul and Maka still didn't really have an idea of who they could ask about Rachel.
"Hey, I'm going to go ask Hiro if he knows anything about Rachel missing." Maka said, as she turned in her chair towards Soul.
Soul arched an eyebrow at this. "What makes you think he knows anything about Rachel's disappearance?"
"Um, well I have seen Rachel talking to Hiro in the hallways before in the past. So maybe Hiro has hung out with her before." Maka stated. 'Or at least I know Rachel has bribed him with dates before to try and get information about me…'
Soul shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "Fine, but I doubt he knows anything."
Maka sighed and got up from her chair and walked over to Hiro's seat. Hiro had been looking at a magazine, when he suddenly noticed Maka's presence in slight shock.
"Hey, what brings you here to my desk? I thought you didn't want us talking to each other unless it was after school." Hiro muttered quietly enough, so that no one nearby would hear them.
Maka huffed and shook her head. "It doesn't have anything to do with Emerald. I wanted to know if you talked to Rachel Anderson recently." Maka mumbled back.
Hiro looked confused about who Maka was talking about for a second, before remembering who she was and shaking his head.
"I haven't really spoken to her since she just used me to get information about you. Why, did something happen to her?" Hiro asked.
Maka frowned and nodded her head. "Her friends said she went missing yesterday. I'm just trying to get an idea of who she might have talked to or where she might have been at before she left school."
Hiro sighed and nodded his head in understanding. "Oh I see know. That's pretty nice of you to try and look for her even though she's been a jerk to you. When we actually went out on one date, I got to see she isn't that bad of a person once you get past her Soul worshipping and snotty behavior."
Maka rolled her eyes at this. "I don't get what else there is to Rachel besides those two traits."
Hiro shrugged. "She actually has goals and ambitions to do well and hopefully get into this class."
Maka seemed a bit surprised at hearing that. "Well that's news to me. I guess I shouldn't be so quick to judge her. Anyways, I'm going to continue to ask around and see what other info I can get. Thanks for your help."
Hiro nodded his head and went back to reading his magazine as Maka returned back to her seat.
"So, did he know anything?" Soul asked.
Maka shook her head and twirled her pencil.
Soul frowned as he watched Maka go deep into thought over the situation. He had been watching as Hiro and Maka talked to each other in interest. 'It's odd how comfortable Maka was talking to Hiro of all people. Though I guess it's easy for Maka to talk to most people at this school when she's trying to work on a case.'
Once class was over, Maka made her way over to the cafeteria to try and find Tsugumi and her friends.
"Hi Maka, what brings you by our lunch table?" Tsugumi asked cheerfully.
Maka smiled and greeted her along with Anya and Meme. "I wanted to ask you guys if you knew anything about a girl in your class named Rachel Anderson."
All 3 of the girls thought it over for a minute before Anya spoke up.
"Her and her friends like to talk a lot and cause trouble for Sid and some of our other classmates. They think they are so great when really they're not!" Anya huffed out.
"I've seen Rachel talk to Travis sometimes; she seemed like she was bothering him a bit the other day. Travis doesn't really talk to anyone in our class, so it kind of surprised me when Rachel went up and talked him." Tsugumi stated.
"Wait, who are we talking about again?" Meme asked, completely forgetting who Rachel was.
Maka sighed and thought over what Anya and Tsugumi had told her. "Is that the first time you've seen Rachel talk to Travis?" Maka asked Tsugumi.
Tsugumi shook her head. "They've talked in class maybe once or twice. The last time they talked though, it seemed to really annoy Travis that Rachel was bugging him again."
"What's even stranger is that today, neither Rachel nor Travis came to class or field practice. Her friends were telling Sid that they didn't know where Rachel was and some people were even saying that Travis could have something to do with it." Anya stated.
Maka nodded and made a mental note of what they had told her. "Okay thanks you guys for the information. I'm actually trying to find out where Rachel could have gone and what you guys just told me really helps."
Tsugumi smiled and took a sip from her drink. "Oh were happy to help you anyway Maka! After all, were trying to get to be as good as you someday!"
Maka smiled back and blushed a bit at the compliment. After waving goodbye to them, Maka sat back down and wrote down some notes.
"Looks like you got some good information finally." Soul stated, walking up behind her.
Maka nodded her head, as she finished up writing her notes.
"It seems like Rachel had been bugging Travis a lot to the point he couldn't take it anymore. Though how he ended up kidnapping her is still something I'm not sure on." Maka stated.
"Well I asked some guys in the NOT class and they told me that Rachel had been looking for Travis after school yesterday. Some them even said they saw her leaving out of the boy's dorms all angry yesterday." Soul said.
"She must have needed Travis for something. It's odd that she would just go to all that trouble to look around for him." Maka stated.
Soul sighed and stretched his arms out. "Well, you already know Travis is keeping her at his place more than likely. The question now is how we get to her."
Maka frowned as she glanced back over her notes. "Travis is keeping her in his apartment. I don't know the layout of his apartment, but he'll know we're coming no matter what. We'll need to strike as soon as it gets dark enough outside.
Soul grinned at this. "Good, it's about time that bastard pays for all the trouble he's caused us and other people."
~X~
Maka sighed as she doubled checked the small pack she was carrying with her. All she was bringing with her was some water, a first aid kit, and a pocket knife.
Maka rubbed her forehead in an attempt to ease her growing headache and anxiety.
"Hey, are you almost ready to go Maka?" Soul asked from behind the door.
Maka glanced at her watch. It was currently a quarter till 9 pm. Maka stepped out of her room and greeted Soul.
"You're taking your medicine before we leave right?" Soul asked.
Maka nodded her head. "I already took it, but I still feel a bit on edge."
Soul smiled and pulled her in by the waist. "That's just your nerves getting to you."
Maka sighed and relaxed a bit when Soul suddenly spoke up again in a serious manner. "After we deal with Travis and save Rachel, I want you to be honest with me about everything."
Maka eye's widened as she realized what Soul was talking about. 'That's right; I still never had the chance to tell Soul about Emerald back in the clinic.'
Maka nodded her head in agreement. "I'm sorry I've been keeping secrets from you Soul. I don't want our relationship to contain lies anymore."
Soul pulled her in a bit closer. "Don't worry about it right now Maka. Let's deal with Travis and Rachel first."
Maka quietly agreed, and with that they both left out the door and headed towards Travis's apartment.
Once Soul and Maka reached Travis's apartment, they carefully scoped the area.
"I'm going to go and ask the front desk to confirm that Travis lives here. You look around the area to make sure there aren't any witnesses nearby." Maka stated.
Soul nodded his head in agreement and glanced around the area as Maka talked to the attendant. 'Damn. I expected Travis to live in a better apartment than this. This place looks like it is about to fall apart any second. Though I guess he lives here in order to avoid detection and keep up with his innocent façade.'
Maka walked back up to Soul just as he finished looking around. "Okay he lives on the 3rd floor, 1st door on the left. Let's get this over with."
Soul and Maka climbed the stairs and faced the plain brown door. Soul was about to pick the lock, when Maka suddenly stopped him.
"Hold on Soul. Let me check to see first if both Travis and Rachel are in there." Maka stated, as she concentrated and used her Soul perception.
"Are they both in there?" Soul asked, once he knew Maka was done checking the area.
Maka smiled a bit and turned towards Soul. "We're in luck, I only sense one soul in there and I'm pretty sure it's Rachel's."
Soul arched an eyebrow. "What makes you so sure?"
"Travis's soul is rather strong from all the experience he's had fighting people. This soul I'm sensing isn't like that. In fact, we should hurry; I don't think Rachel is going to last much longer."
Soul nodded and turned one of his fingers into a blade and picked at the lock. After a few minutes, the lock clicked and the door crept open.
"Alright, let's go rescue her." Soul stated, straightened up as they both made their way inside.
Maka and Soul threaded carefully inside. Only the moonlight coming in through the window provided a source of light. Maka scrunched up her nose in anger when she picked up on the faint scent of blood in the air.
"She's in the bathroom; I think it's on the right." Maka whispered, as she walked towards the door and slowly pushed it open.
Maka and Soul's eyes widened as they took in the site of Rachel. Rachel was barely breathing and had her hands and legs tied together. Rachel's normally bright and alert brown eyes were now dull and hazy. It even seemed like Travis had even taken time to make clear and precise cuts along her body to prolong her pain and the bleeding.
Maka snapped out of her shock and quickly went to Rachel's side. "Don't worry Rachel; Soul and I are here now! We won't let Travis hurt you anymore."
Rachel said nothing as she watched Maka untie the ropes that had bounded her.
"Alright Rachel you're free now! Do you need help standing up? Come on Soul, help me lift her up!" Maka said, as she turned her attention back to Soul.
Rachel only curled up into a ball and tried to weakly shove Soul and Maka's hands away.
"You shouldn't have come here. He'll be back soon…" Rachel managed to croak out shakily.
"We know that! That's why we have to hurry now." Maka replied back, reaching out for Rachel again.
Rachel only tried to move further away from Maka's touch.
Maka sighed and stood back up. "What do we do Soul? She's been so traumatized; she won't even accept our help!"
Soul frowned, unsure what to do also until another voice spoke up.
"Rachel is right; you two really shouldn't have come here. I can't say I'm surprised though. It's about time I finally got your grigori soul Maka." Travis stated, as he leaned against the door's frame.
Maka glared and glanced towards Soul who nodded in agreement and turned into his scythe form.
Travis sighed and stepped back a bit.
"Well, I was hoping I could get to you without a fight, but it seems like that won't be the case." Travis mused with a cold laugh, as he turned his arm into a sickle and rushed towards them.
Author's Note: That's it for Chapter 23! Let me know what you think with a review, and as always thanks for reading!"