Stein stepped cautiously around the corner, careful to remain quiet. He held Spirit at the ready in his hands, leaving the not-Marie's body behind them, the woman's soul tucked away. He felt a pang of regret, but tamped it down, focusing on the task at hand.

He was injured, badly if not fatally. If they weren't careful a rescue attempt for Maka may have disastrous results for all three of them. He knew that someone had replaced Witch Auril though he had not heard the woman's name spoken, and he assumed that she was at least as powerful.

Certainly she was more cunning. Stein's grip tightened on Spirit's shaft as he recalled how he had been tricked by a mimesis of all things.

"Stein?" Spirit's voice floated up from his weapon form and Stein forced his hands to relax on the weapon.

"I'm fine, Spirit."

They both knew it was a lie. Spirit accepted it without a word though, and the pair moved further into the complex.

Maka tried to keep from having to drink whatever that was again. It tasted foul and disgusting, oozing down her throat like oil. She twisted her head only to have someone grab her chin and hold it still while another person forced her mouth open and poured the liquid down her throat, pinching her nose closed.

It was either swallow or suffocate, and Maka chose in the end to swallow. The bag was swiftly pulled over her head again and she was left alone, sitting on a stone floor.

"I don't remember this place being so large, Stein."

"Neither do I, Senpai." Stein stopped, straining again to utilize Soul Perception and failing. He had never felt more lost than he did at this point in time, and he couldn't stop his hands from trembling slightly, tension causing his muscles to tighten and his body to threaten to collapse. He stood still for a long moment, trying to focus and relax his body.

It was then that he realized he could feel the worry leeching from Spirit's soul.

A laugh of relief escaped him and he nearly hit his knees.

"Stein?"

"It's worn off!"

Without taking the time to explain what it was, without waiting on Spirit's response Stein moved with purpose down the hallways. There were lights now all around him; red glows that he knew were kishin eggs.

None of those mattered to him at all; the only one that mattered was a blue glow that came from further inside the complex and, past that, the purple one that was distressingly close to Maka's.

A hand grabbed Maka's chin again, tilting it up, and the meister couldn't help but swallow as she felt long nails lay lightly against her throat.

"They come for her?" Maka couldn't place the tone of the woman's voice. It was something between disbelief and smug satisfaction.

"Yes, m'Lady. It is just as the Goddess said. Should we be preparing for her arrival?"

A twisted grin covered the face that Maka couldn't see, but this time Maka could place the emotion in the woman's voice. It was longing, pure and simple. An unadulterated desire for whoever that person was to arrive. Maka felt herself shiver as long nails lightly caressed the side of her throat.

"Yes. Prepare for her arrival. This one will have to do."

Rough hands grabbed Maka and dragged her to her feet. She was marched out of wherever she was being held and into a room that was bright even through the bag that was covering her head. She was left blinking into that same light as someone forcefully ripped the bag from her head.

It took a long moment that was filled with nothing but silence for her eyes to adjust to the overly bright light. She blinked the stars from them to see her father standing beside Stein. They were alone in the room.

"Papa?"

A grin crossed the man's face. "Yes, Maka. It's Papa." She stared for a moment, disbelief on her face. "What's wrong, Maka?"

She couldn't find the words. She knew that the man in front of her wasn't her papa, but she didn't want to give that away, so she lied. "I was just so worried, but I knew you'd come to save me, Papa!"

The not-Stein beside him was silent until she hugged the not-Spirit. "She's lying, Senpai."

"Ah, well. Shame we couldn't spare her this next bit."

She didn't have time to move, couldn't have dodged the blow if she wanted to. Maka crumpled to the ground in front of the two and her "papa" hoisted her other his shoulder and they walked into the next room, laying her down in the middle of a series of runes.

Stein and Spirit rounded a corner, the weapon held firmly in the scientist's hands. They darted past the room that Maka had been held in, Stein not even sparing the room a glance. He knew where Spirit's daughter was now; there was no use in investigating the room she had been in.

His lack of attention proved to be a mistake. Something slammed into him from behind and sent the meister sprawling even as a cold laugh slipped through the distance between them and the woman that stepped from the shadows.

"I see that you have come back to us, Death Scythe-sama, just as we requested; though it was unnecessary of you to release your meister friend. He is completely useless to us now."

"I'll show you useless!" Stein growled out and flung himself at the woman.

Yuki-Onne just smiled, stepping gracefully to the side at the last moment and bringing her hand down against Stein's back. Long cuts erupted on his back, her nails tearing through what remained of his shirt. Frost rimed the wounds and it took Stein's breath away, the meister collapsing to his knees; the only thing that kept him from falling completely was his grip on Spirit's handle.

"Stein!"

"I would worry more about your little one, if I were you, Death Scythe-sama."

"I'll kill you if you've hurt Maka!"

Stein staggered to his feet as the witch spoke, "Oh, fear not. She has not been injured. I would never hurt a child. Besides, we wouldn't risk that, no."

Stein froze at the implications. He could feel the shock of fear that that lanced through Spirit's soul.

"What are you doing to her?" Stein demanded.

A cruel smile twisted the woman's face. "What is necessary to atone for the sins of the father." The smile fell from the woman's face and spirits made of snow and ice formed around her, obscuring Spirit and Stein's vision. Her voice floated to them through the haze, "And now, you too will atone for the sin of taking my goddess from me and threatening the precious lives that are in my care."

It was hot. Maka writhed underneath the heat, voices that she hadn't heard before rising and falling around her in a language that she didn't understand. She had woken up with her legs and arms bound to her sides, a blindfold having replaced the bag that had been covering her head. She could feel the sweat that slicked down her pigtails, that was running down her neck and between her shoulder blades. She could feel the hard floor beneath her.

But she couldn't sense the souls of the people around her.

She struggled, trying to get free when she heard a twisted laugh. She recognized it, sweet Death, she did; it was her father's. A moment later the voices rose to a fevered pitch and a wave of icy coldness surged over the meister's body. She screamed through the gag, her body arching back as it felt like every one of her cells was frozen. Then she felt it. The cold reached an intensity that she didn't think she could stand, spreading like fire across her body; hidden behind that cold she could feel it.

Something else was with the cold, something far colder and crueler.

A/N: First of all… thank you all for the thoughts concerning my surgery. I have a date! March 25th provided I come up with the funds for the doctor's fee. Working desperately on that. I'll be updating a lot more after the surgery; I won't be able to sit upright in a computer chair and do a lot of what I'm doing now. Can't tell you how much I appreciate all the kind thoughts :)

Secondly: Secrets is going to be coming to an end in a few chapters. Not sure how many. If you want to leave me ideas for a sequel/continuation (or just a request!) I'll be happy to look at them.

I don't own Soul Eater. Thanks so much for reading ^_^