Stein gently picked the unconscious death scythe up, letting her head loll against his chest. "Is she going to be alright, Professor Stein?" Maka asked as Stein stood.

"She should make a full recovery, Maka. Marie is a very resourceful, strong person. She'll pull through." Stein looked down at Marie. 'You have better make it through, or I will never forgive you.'

Stein moved through the hallways, leaving the complex behind him quickly, Maka and Soul following silently until Maka spoke up. "Professor Stein, you said that you'd explain to us about this place."

"So I did." He said, and was silent again. Soul was about to speak when Stein finally continued, his voice low.

"I was young. It was after your father had left me to work with your mother, Maka. I left Death City for a while, taking what I had saved and used it to create this place. It was to be my laboratory, far beyond where anyone would come to find me; not that I expected anyone to come looking for me." He looked down at Marie. "She followed me though. Marie is stubborn like that. She didn't believe that I should be alone after what had happened. She didn't know then that I had been experimenting on Spirit.

"I had already sat all of my precautions before I knew she had followed me, and had actually slipped inside. I was so preoccupied with making sure I had properly equipped what was to become my new home that I didn't sense her presence. In actuality, what happened next was Marie's fault.

"She had led a witch here. Laryn, specifically. I was unaware of Marie's presence in the lab when I became aware of Laryn's. I was hesitant about fighting a witch on my own, though I was certain that I would win, I was worried about the wounds that might be inflicted if I had to fight her without a weapon, so I activated the traps inside the lab." Stein adjusted Marie in his arms without missing a step, the death scythe muttering something underneath her breath as Stein continued.

"Laryn triggered most of them, and destroyed more than I had hoped that she would. Marie, thankfully, was so lost that she never encountered Laryn, and somehow, in her stumbling path through my lab, never sat off a single trap. She never knew they were there until much later.

"I captured Laryn. It was actually a mistake, an experiment that I had hadn't meant to include but had. The field trapped her, but also rendered me incapacitated for nearly two days. Marie found us, and assumed that Laryn had cast a spell of some sort on me. I didn't tell her different. I was so weak from it that we left Laryn trapped in the field, and left the lab, sealing it."

Maka interrupted him before he could continue. "What type of field are you talking about, Professor? We didn't see anything like that while we were inside there with you."

"It was an experiment that degraded over time. I used my own Soul Wavelength to create a sort of prison for Laryn. She couldn't cast any of her magic while inside it. Unfortunately, it was an incredibly draining experiment, in fact, it nearly killed me. Hence, I never explored it further." A smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth. "I may be insane, but I still do have a sense of self-preservation."

Marie's voice was quiet and raspy, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth as she looked up weakly at him. "I don't believe that Franken."

"Marie, don't speak. You need to save your strength." He said, and turned to Maka. "In my pack is a water bottle, will you please retrieve it?" Maka nodded, reaching carefully into the pack and removing the bottle. She held it awkwardly as Stein knelt to the ground, supporting Marie against himself before taking the bottle from her.

"You can't drink much, Marie. You're suffering severe dehydration. We're going to get you back to Death City as fast as we can, so for now, just take small sips." Marie nodded, and Stein held the bottle to her lips, taking it away after just two small sips. "I'm not being cruel, Marie. I'm not going to allow you to get sick from drinking too much too soon, do you understand?"

Marie gave him a weak smile and nodded slowly, her eyes slipping closed again.

"Was that a good sign, Professor?" Soul asked.

"A very good sign, Soul." He said, picking Marie back up, and continuing towards Death City, which was barely visible on the horizon.

Marie stared up at the stitched ceiling above her and sighed, "Franken?" She called out, her voice tired.

He was at her side in an instant, the incessant clicking of keys silent now. "What is it, Marie?"

She continued to stare at the ceiling. "How much longer before I can sleep in a real bed again? And get the needle out of my arm?"

"You were incredibly dehydrated, Marie. It could take days, maybe even a week for you to be properly rehydrated." He explained gently.

"Could I at least sleep in my own bed? It's just upstairs, you know." She begged.

Stein looked down at her and Marie thought that she saw his face soften a bit, but dismissed it as a trick of the light. "I will make the consideration to move you to your own bed on one condition, Marie."

Marie was worried. "What condition is that?"

"You have to lift the ban on me being inside your room while you are asleep. I will not leave you alone while you are still so weak." Marie had never seen such a mixture of emotion on the man's face that was looking down at her, and for a second she couldn't form words in her shock. She blinked and when she looked at him again his face was neutral.

"I… I agree." She finally said. A smile tugged at the corner of Stein's lips, but he kept his face neutral and just nodded.

"Just stay here for a few more minutes, alright? I'm going to set up your room." He asked even as he moved away from the bed, knowing full well that Marie wasn't going anywhere.

Stein was nervous. It wasn't a feeling he had felt in a long time, and he had actually forgotten what it felt like. 'Though, why I am nervous about simply entering a room in my own home is something I don't understand.' Yet, his hand trembled slightly as he turned the knob and entered Marie's room for the first time since he had cleaned his lab equipment out of it.

Moving quickly he cleaned off the small dresser beside her bed, ducking across the hall to retrieve a stand to hang the IV bag from, placing a new IV bag on it and placing it on the left side of the bed, where her IV was. He turned down the blanket so he wouldn't have to with Marie in his arms. He made sure to close the blinds so that the light wouldn't bother her. He then retrieved the book he remembered she had been reading earlier and placed it beside the bed along with a small glass of ice chips.

He stepped back into the lab and smirked. Marie was asleep again, her breathing deep and slow. He carefully removed the current IV line, careful to make sure he wouldn't have to set a new one. Slipping his arms underneath her he picked her up, cradling her against his chest as he walked slowly and smoothly up the stairs and into her room. He reattached the IV line after lowering her into her bed, pulling the blanket up over her.

Marie awoke a little while later, and smiled as she felt her own bed underneath her. She was cold though, and pulled the blanket up a bit with her right hand, suddenly realizing that there wasn't the sound of typing coming from anywhere in the room. Fear overwhelmed her and she fought back tears, trying to keep her voice from shaking as she called out for him.

"F-Franken?" She felt a hand take ahold of her hand. She looked to her right, and Stein was sitting propped against her dresser, a laptop balanced precariously on his knees.

"You're not alone, Marie." He said quietly, turning his head to look at her. It was then that she could see, by the light of his laptop, how sunken his eyes were behind his glasses, the dark circles they didn't quite hide.

"Have you slept?" She asked suddenly. He looked at her blankly. "Franken Stein, when was the last time you slept?" She asked, trying to muster her best motherly listen to me voice. It failed, her own voice too tired and weak still to impress.

"Two days after you disappeared I slept for thirty minutes. Just now, I believe I slept for about fifteen before you woke. Don't worry about me, just get better." He said, looking back down at the laptop that was balanced on his knees. He didn't remove his hand from hers though, and Marie closed her eyes, taking the time to enjoy this unusual act.

Marie woke to the sound of heavy breathing a few hours later according to the clock on the dresser. Stein's head lay against the front of the dresser, his hands at his sides as he breathed slowly in and out, his eyes shut and glasses askew. Marie smiled, and carefully, slowly, reached out to pull the laptop out of his lap; afraid he'd wake up and break it.

She nearly dropped it, not having realized how weak she actually was, but she managed to get it pulled up onto the bed beside her. She closed the lid without bothering to look at whatever he had been reading when he succumbed to sleep, laying her hand on top of it, and shivered. She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, careful of her left hand and fell asleep again, the laptop heating her side up fell asleep again quickly, her body exhausted.

Laryn stood in front of her, twirling a set of keys in her hand. Marie raged, and attempted to transform her arm into her hammer form. There was searing pain and as Marie looked down, she watched her hand turn blue as something constricted around it, the transformation halted.

"Come on, Hammer, can't do any better than that? He's coming; don't you want to be able to help him?" Laryn cackled, extending the keys towards the bound death scythe.

Marie glared at the woman, ignoring the pain in her hand. "He's going to kill you, you bitch."

"He let me live once, or don't you remember that?" The witch grinned. "He came back to me over the years though, but he ignored you completely, didn't he?"

"He's coming now and that's all that matters!" Marie snarled, pulling against the bindings.

"Keep that up and he'll come back to find you without any limbs!" Laryn laughed.

"You're dealing with a death scythe now!" Marie snarled, and attempted to transform completely, believing that it would allow her to escape the bindings.

Searing hot pain spread through her entire body. She couldn't breathe. She could barely make out Laryn's laughing form through her hazy vision and the pounding of blood in her ears. The pain grew and grew.

Marie woke up screaming. She bolted up in bed, the agony of the dream all too real as her entire body seemed to be ignited in the pain. Stein was awake and had his arms wrapped around her before the scream even died away, torn from her ragged throat.

"Marie, listen to me. I'm here. It was a dream. You're not alone. There's no one here but me. Marie, focus. Listen to me." Stein whispered quietly into her hair, holding her close to him.

She sobbed against his chest.

A/N: I hope you like the latest addition to Ensnared, for all of you who demanded another chapter :) I'll try to keep updating this periodically :)

Thanks for the encouragement on this- I really enjoy writing this one!