Edit: Republished with pictures now!

A/N: I was happy to continue it. I had written bits and pieces, so there are a bit of timeskips.

Warning: Strong language.

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Crow slowly slipped into consciousness, knitting his eyebrows at the sudden flare of pain in his skull. He felt cold, his head spinning. Crow realized he was on stone floor in an awkward position. He grumbled quietly, blinking slowly to adjust to where he was. He saw grey stone and stone walls that were very close; he realized that he was in a small, stone room. Most likely a prison of sorts.

"You're awake! T-thank goodness," An unsteady voice came from the vicinity, partially startling Crow.

Crow went to stand up, but he was immediately stopped by the rope keeping his hands and legs tied behind him.

Lifting and turning his head towards the sound, Crow noticed another man in the small room with him that was tied to the wall near his head. The man looked completely shaken when Crow's eye met his.

"O-Oh my god," the man sputtered when Crow showed his face, "is it really you...? One of the Monarchy?"

Crow raised a brow, effectively playing dumb.

The man looked a bit startled, then straightened up and responded with a stutter, "U-uh, never mind. I must have mistook you for someone else. How...how are you doing?"

Rolling and sitting up with some effort, Crow sat up and scooted his back to the wall. He didn't answer the man's question, not really interested in small talk.

The man shifted a bit uncomfortably due to the unanswered question, but he brushed it off.

Silence fell upon the two.

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"What?!"

Falcon whirred around and glared angrily at Chariot. Chariot sights, brushing a red strand of flyaway out of her face impatiently.

"All I'm saying is that we need to be careful. Barging in from the front just isn't the best idea. Crow would be in more danger if we do."

"But they have Crow! We gotta-!"

King beeped his clicker, telling Falcon to keep a level head.

Falcon huffs hard from his boiling rage, heaving heated breaths for a few seconds, but then gives an even harder sigh in defeat. He stuffs his hands into his pants pockets, tilting his head down.

Hollow was half ignoring the argument with one arm supporting his elbow, and the supported arm having the hand clasp his chin, focusing on trying to find a good solution. King clicks his beeping mechanism, letting the group know he agreed with Chariot and that a front attack would be stupid.

"Yeah," Hollow muttered, "but where do we get in? We secured a route to where our target lay, but we have no idea where the dungeons are..."

King beeped, letting Hollow know that they needed to make a decision soon, otherwise they'd be found here.

After a moment, Hollow nodded to himself and told the group, "We'll have to back off for now."

"WHAT?!" Chariot blurted, her expression twisting into one of startled confusion, "Hollow, why?!"

"What about Crow?! He's still in there! He's in danger! Why the hell do you wanna go back now?! We have to save him!" Falcon rebuked, furious.

"Hear me out, guys," Hollow pressed, "we're in no shape to go back in there. King has run out of supplies, Falcon hurt his leg, and you're exhausted. Plus, we got what we came for. We need to fall back and think of a better plan so we can give our A game the next time we come back."

Falcon avoided Hollow's calm gaze as he shifted less weight off of his hurt leg, obviously mad about the situation. Hollow recognized this and finally realized why he was so adamant on saving Crow.

"Falcon," Hollow maintained, "I know he's special to you, but you can't let your emotion get in the way of decisions, otherwise you'd be reckless. We need to restock and think about our next move thoroughly."

Falcon turned away, silent. This made Hollow a bit nervous.

"Falcon...please. This is the best decision for us right now. We're in no condition to fight."

There was a beat of silence, Falcon weighing his options. After contemplating, he looked back at Hollow with a pained expression, "...he's all I've got...I can't just..."

Another beat of tense silence.

"...Okay. But I don't like it."

Hollow acknowledged Falcon, "I know. Let's head back."

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"It's been four days. Are you sure they're coming back for you, Monarch trash?"

Crow took in a steady breath, eyeing the man behind the door through the window in front of the interrogation room dangerously.  The man smirked wider, surveying Crow's helpless slouched form in the chair in the middle of the room where he left him.

"I'm surprised you're still awake and resisting. You despise me, don't you?"

Crow lifted his head a little, replying, "...I probably would, if I gave you any thought, Saxxon."

Saxxon frowned a little, holding Crows gaze as he grunted, "don't make me come back in there...I'm sure you don't want another shot, do you? Keep this up and I'll do something worse to you."

"Like what?"

"You little bitch," Saxxon threateningly slammed the door open and stalked towards where Crow sat, "I'll beat the tar outta you!"

 "Sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you're stupid than open it and remove all doubt," Crow advised, faintly smiling.  

Crow was completely expecting the man's reaction. Saxxon gripped Crow's collar in an untactful manner, pulling Crow off of his seat enough so Crow was being held up by his grip. Crow didn't make a move against him. He knew what he was doing.

"You want to run that by me again?" Saxxon hissed. Crow smiled a little more.

"...I refuse to engage in a battle of wits, as I will not take advantage of the handicapped."

Crow watched Saxxon yell in frustration, drawing his fist back to sock him. Crow braced.

BOOM!

An explosion sounded nearby, startling Saxxon enough to stop what he was doing. A ruckus started above them. The sounds included shouting, clanging, banging, thumping, and fighting.

 He looked towards the door, connected the situations, then immediately turned back to Crow with a accusing, utterly annoyed look.  

"This is about you isn't it?" Saxxon growled, letting go of Crow's collar. Crow dropped like a bag of rocks back onto the chair.

Crow did nothing but smirk at Saxxon in response.

The irritated man grumbled, thinking quickly.

"I didn't want to do this yet..."

click.

Crow's eyes widened in realization as he stared down a metal barrel, aimed directly at his forehead at point blank range.

"I wanted to torture you a bit more...leader of the Monarch..." Saxxon smirked in victory, "but I'll have to cut this short... along with your life."

Crow narrowed his eyes, not saying anything in response.

"Goodbye, Crow."

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"He's down this hall!" Chariot warned.

"Hurry!" Falcon called from ahead of the group.

They found the right door and were about to kick the door in when they heard a voice inside.

"Goodbye Crow."

They heard a gunshot from within the room. Everyone jumped at the sound.

Falcon's blood turned to ice as he, in a complete panic, knocked to door down with his strength. The team flooded into the room only to see Crow...

....alive and well. Saxxon was laying on the floor with a startled expression, blood gushing from the bullet wound in his head. Everyone came into the room flooded with relief.

"Holy fuck," Falcon gasped, running over to Crow who was slouched over in the chair, "Z!"

Hollow went to correct Falcon that they shouldn't refer to each other by name because they were in enemy territory, but suppressed it. Falcon probably didn't care anyway. 

Falcon lifted Crows head gently with has hands on Crow's cheeks, observing his boyfriend's face in horror. Crow looked so dazed that Falcon was kicking himself for not arguing more against Hollow's idea to retreat.

"Shit..." Chariot breathed, crouching next to Falcon as she spotted a syringe on the floor near Crow, "what the hell did they do to you...?"

Hollow spoke up, "Glad you're okay, but we need to high tail it out of here. The place is going to come down with what's going on up there!"

Falcon nodded and went around behind Crow to untie him, answering Crow's unspoken question, "We have Ignite up there having a bit of fun so we can do our business."

"The heist...was it successful?" Crow asked, wheezing hard.

King beeped the answer yes to the question, then beeped to warn Crow not talk too much.

"The zounderkite's were no match against us," Chariot confirmed, "you lead all of the strong ones away from our entry point at the time. Thank you, Crow."

After untying all of the rope and freeing Crow, Falcon picked him up and they all ran to their planned exit.