{ Hey my dudes, this is a little bit of a filler chapter, so bear with me }

I wasn't sure how much time passed with Mari and I in the cell. She had continued to shake and cry into my shoulder until she'd fallen into sleep. I could tell that Medusa had done something to her. Her body was scratched all over and her black blood was gone, the strange thing that healed her whenever she was hurt.

I watched the door for what had to be hours. I didn't move. Mari stayed still, the only sign that told me she was even still alive her chest moving slightly up and down. Whenever there was a sound, even something small like a footstep somewhere in the rest of the compound—what it had to be—I flinched and readied to fight. I stayed like this for hours and hours, Mari sleeping fitfully the whole time.

Eventually, after too much time I fell forward, unconscious.

Someone had pulled me up and I was being dragged down a hallway. My eyes fluttered open and I looked up to see the huge man Free, his face emotionless and his claws digging into my arms. My whole body felt weak, my stomach almost growling if I hadn't been so frightened. I hadn't eaten for who knows how long?

"Where are you taking me..." I rasped, and the man looked down at me, smiling with his sharp teeth. He didn't answer, just continuing to pull me. Finally, we seemed to reach out destination. He pushed a door open and tossed me in without effort. I realized with a split second of panic that it was the room Mari and I had been in originally. Whatever Medusa had wanted to do to me, she had already done. The door slammed shut and I scrambled to my feet, patting myself all over, looking for whatever she'd done. My fingers brushed over something, and I pulled my shirt up, running my hand over the thin line running vertically on my side. There were tiny bumps where stitched broke the skin. I drew my hand away and saw the slightest tint of red. What had she done to me?

I looked up as the whole building shook. I flinched, looking around frantically. I looked above me as the roof shook again. The memories washed around my brain as this felt oddly familiar. I spun as I heard a shout and then the door to the cell I was in broke down. I met eyes with Maka and felt tears forming.

I ran forward and threw my arms around her, Soul turning back into his human form as I heard our other friends run to us. For a second, I was crushed in everyone's arms. "Mari..." I said, feeling the blood from whatever Medusa had done to me grow to a continuous stream. I ignored it.

Everyone pulled away and moved out into the hallway, scanning the other rooms for Mari. I leaned on Stein, who had come out of nowhere, Marie's weapon form held in his hand as his soul-seeing eyes scanned the surroundings. "In there," He said. His finger pointed down the hall to a room that's door was open. Everyone moved.

When we all reached the room a moment later, James walked out, Mari's arms wrapped around his neck, his arms holding her up. I let out a sigh of relief. Except for all the little cuts that Medusa—or whoever it had been—had inflicted on her, she looked to be fine. James was saying something to her, and she was nodding, whispering something back.

"Let's go." Stein said.