The three individuals slipped in the door and then slid it closed behind them. Maka and Soul followed Stein down the stairs, mimicking his movements as much as possible, Soul transforming into his scythe form as they hit the bottom step. Stein held up a hand and darted forward.
A couple of long seconds passed as Maka stayed pressed against the wall, breathing quiet and steady. Stein reached one long arm back around the corner, grabbing her arm and nearly causing her to jump as he tugged her around the corner before a wall slid down in front of the hall she had been standing in.
"Professor Stein, what was that?" She asked quietly, now following behind him.
"A reflex from the building. It knows that there are supposed to be a maximum of three living creatures inside it at any one time, so it was attempting to enforce that." Stein explained.
"The building itself did that?!" She asked, surprise on her face.
"And much more, Maka." Stein said, his arm stopping her forward progress again. "Watch your footing. The dark marks on the floor? Those are pits. One wrong step and anything weighing more than thirty pounds goes down them."
"Professor Stein, why did you build some place like this? And how do we get out again?" Maka asked, moving behind him. He stopped so suddenly that she bumped into him.
"Maka, once we retrieve Marie I will explain everything. Until then please be quiet." Stein twisted the screw in his head. "This way. Please, stay close."
Maka and Soul followed him through the twists and turns of the underground complex. Twice Maka gasped in surprise as Stein caught her wrist, dragging her through a doorway just as another wall slid down blocking it. The second time she leaned against the wall beside her, rubbing her wrist absentmindedly. "Professor Stein, if you built this place, are we getting close?"
He looked over at her, his glasses flashing in the dim light and obscuring his eyes. "We are Maka. Marie and the witch are very close. We may start encountering sentries unless the witch took care of them all, and it is very possible that she has. You have to follow my steps exactly. We're deep in the complex and there are no longer marks to follow on where the pit traps are. Do you understand, Maka?"
Maka shifted her grip on Soul and nodded. "I understand, Professor. I'll stay close."
"Good. Now let's go." Stein darted out and around the corner, his wavelength playing around his hands, providing a dim illumination in the ever darkening hallway. Maka followed a second later. In the dim lighting she had to move quickly and close to the Professor to mirror his footsteps, and when he dashed around another corner she couldn't see where his initial footfall had been. She guessed wrong.
With a metallic groan the floor slid open, and Maka barely managed to suppress the scream that welled up in her. She slammed Soul against the floor as hard as she could, burying his scythe into it. Her shoulders wrenched painfully as her descent was suddenly stopped, leaving her dangling by one hand above the darkness. Soul screamed her name in her head as she hung their limply for a second before she strained, pulling her body up Soul's handle.
Stein's head appeared over the lip of the pit and he reached one hand down to grab her wrist again; his cigarette glowing brightly as he inhaled and with one swift motion jerked her out of the pit. Soul landed beside her in his human form just seconds before the floor closed again.
"I warned you to stay close and follow my footsteps." Was all that Stein said. "Now come on. We need to hurry. Marie's wavelength isn't very stable." Maka nodded, and Soul switched back into his weapon form. Maka was much more careful this time.
It took another long minute for them to reach a set of stairs that led downward to a door. The staircase was completely dark, the only hint of the door being the light that was bleeding out from around the bottom and sides.
"The stairs should be safe. If the witch took the time to remove all the sentries that we should have encountered I have no doubts that she also would have removed the traps that couldn't be avoided on the stairs."
"You're not sure?" Soul asked.
"That's why I'm going first." Stein said. "Now, don't talk again, the witch is on the other side of that door." Stein darted down the stairs, nothing exploding or falling away beneath him. Maka followed with Soul and second later, meeting Stein at the bottom of the stairs. Stein stood, his head tilted to the side, listening to the conversation coming from the other side of the door.
"Come now, hammer. You know no one is coming. If someone was going to come and rescue you they would have been here by now. So why not eat and drink something? I did go to the effort of preparing something I knew you would like. I'm not cruel." The voice chuckled. "My Shibusen torturer decided that he would see how long I could go without food and water once. I know what you're going through."
The response was so low that Stein almost couldn't hear it. "He will come…"
"If you really believed that your savior would come for you, you would have eaten and drank something to keep your strength up!" The witch's voice rose with a shriek. "If HE was actually going to come for you, would he have left you here, alone with me, for five whole days before coming?! He doesn't care about either of us, you stupid hammer!"
Again, in a voice so low Stein could barely make it out Marie replied. "He'll come, and you'll be sorry, you bitch."
'Yes, she will be.' Stein thought blackly. "Maka, give me Soul." He whispered suddenly to her.
"Professor? The plan was for me to wield Soul." She whispered back, wary about being left alone without a weapon.
"I'm going to end this quickly, and since Soul is a Death Scythe it shouldn't take long if I am wielding him. I need you to release Marie from whatever bonds she's being held with." Maka nodded, handing him Soul.
Soul recoiled a bit as Stein took ahold of him. He knew that there wouldn't be the pain of a rejection, but Stein's soul was quite odd to work with. Soul almost felt as if he were nothing but a normal weapon to Stein.
"Alright you stupid hammer! Either you're going to eat or drink something or I'm going to kill you now. I may be a witch, but that doesn't mean I'm so cruel I'll watch you make yourself suffer over some imagined knight in shining armor-"
The witch's words were cut off short as Stein slammed through the door, darting at her before the door had even completely hit the ground.
Marie could feel the sobs flow through her, but no tears fell. She had no moisture left to spare for them. Her shoulders shook as she watched Stein slam his hand against the witch's stomach, knocking her against the wall. Her uncovered eye focused on Maka who was sliding against the wall, coming towards the cage.
The witch cackled and Marie vainly tried to scream out a warning, but the sound that ripped from her parched throat was barely louder than the whispers she had been speaking in a few moments earlier. "Franken! The doors!"
He looked over just in time to duck as a skeletal figure slammed at him. He dodged out of the way, slashing at a group that tried to surround him.
'Damn.' He thought, 'I never expected these to still be active, much less under the sway of the witch's magic.'
"Soul, Soul resonance." He heard a confirmation from the boy and a second later he pushed their souls into resonance.
"Witch Hunter!" Stein shouted, swinging in a wide arc, cleaving through the skeletal bodies, more of them rushing to fill the gap.
"Ms. Marie!" Maka shouted through the bars at the death scythe. "Lean towards me, I'll get the bonds off! We have to hurry!" Marie looked over at Maka.
"You can't take them off, Maka." She whispered through the pain in her throat. "If anyone other than the witch tries to even touch them, they'll tighten. I tried to transform my arm to burst them and you can see the result of it." Maka looked down in horror at Marie's blue fingers.
A blast of energy swept through the room as the witch dove cackling towards Stein. The collision knocked everyone back and to the ground, the witch standing overtop of Stein's form with a frantic grin in her eyes.
"You'll torment me no more, Shibusen dog!" She howled, plunging her hand towards Stein's chest.
A/N: Sorry for how long this took to get up. Looks like I'll finish the combat up in the next chapter ;) I don't own Soul Eater.