When Chen's eyes opened, he fully expected to be bombarded by numerous blows and be interrogated in unnecessarily melodramatic tones, punctuated by equally unnecessarily melodramatic and unoriginal blows.

So it was a bit of surprise and whole lot of relief when neither happened and he simply stared in the darkness, waiting for his eyes to adjust. This past… how many days had it been? Torturenty? Hah, Baekhyun would've had a field day with that.

ing hell… he mentally groaned as the tiny tremble of laughter made his entire body ache. He was sore in places he hadn't even known he could get sore in and even thinking hurt. But if Evil wasn't around – and since he wasn't being tortured and quizzed painfully, it was safe to assume the guy wasn't around, then this was his chance to try and make a break for it.

He experimentally moved his wrists and bit his tongue to stop the pained whimpers that wanted to escape his mouth. So, most of his bones were broken and there was a good chance he wouldn't be able to stand on his own legs if he got out of these bonds.

If life threw lemons at you, you made lemonade. If it threw you in Evil's clutches, you… cursed life for doing that to you. What kind of crazy deity did that?

 Pfft, it was better to just let their foot slip on a banana peel and get it over with. At least cracking your neck that way would be funny… and what was he thinking about? Oh yes, if you did end up in Evil's clutches, you winged it and hoped for the best.

So, he tried to ignore his body and focus on his soul… the beast inside him was growling, wanting to be set free but at this point, letting the beast takeover would be equivalent to killing himself. His powers were useless here and his only chance was if his brothers showed up and rescued his damsel in ing distress .

Which begged the question, why hadn't they found him already? He'd felt D.O's connection with him, felt him send some sort of comforting thingy at times that made him feel temporarily warm but that warmth wore off soon as he woke to the cold reality of this darkness.

If his connection was this good, it meant Evil had taken him somewhere they couldn't find him. He opened his eyes and peered around in the darkness again. His eyes had adjusted and he opened them as wide as they would go, trying to make out the details.

If his brothers couldn't find him, he'd lead them – the link between Shadows was a two way thing and even though he hadn't ever done this kind of thing before, he hoped that he could communicate with D.O this way – and to do that, he needed to know exactly where he was.

What he saw made him curse a blue streak.

Trust Evil to things as much as they could be ed. How the hell was he supposed to lead them here?

…………………

D.O was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling and thanking the stars for the little reprieve his Shadow was getting. At least, he hoped that's what the silence through their link meant – that the guy was sleeping, not dead.

His gut twisted at the thought. No, he would know if something happened to Chen – that's what their link was for.

Suddenly, a jolt went through his link that let him know that Chen was awake and trying to use his powers. For some reason, instead of finding release, the energy that built inside their link came crashing back into D.O, like it had been doing ever since Chen had been captured.

D.O rubbed a hand across his forehead, wishing he could do something, anything to help his Shadow. It was killing him that he was unable to help in anyway.

Was that why Lay had turned into such a crybaby? Because there was nothing that could be done? No, dammit, there had to be something!  

He understood now why Lay had teared up like that when he'd tried to read D.O – did that mean he had known Chen would be captured like this? If so, why the hell hadn't he warned them? Why had he let him go off alone like that? Why the hell…

He didn't realize that he was growling, his eyes glowing red. He was pissed.

Lay should've said something, anything – if he had known, he wouldn't have let Chen go off with Kris, he would've insisted that he go instead.

The sheets under his fingers shredded as he let out a frustrated scream and threw a punch at the headboard. It cracked on impact, a hole appearing in the wood. Not at all satisfied with it, he landed another punch on the wall behind it. Then proceeded to punch different surfaces, trying to vent off his frustration.

Who knew how much longer he would've continued like this if he hadn't felt that touch to his soul – the warmth that let him know that his Shadow was comforting him.

All anger left him and he collapsed on the floor, staring at the ceiling again. The touch came again, stronger this time and he thought he heard Chen's voice. He strained his ears but nothing.

The touch retreated, even though he tried to stop him, to hold him there. Chen retreated back into himself but D.O had had enough of inactivity. If Chen could reach out to him like this, he could reach back. Maybe… just maybe….

An idea formed in his head and his eyes expanded. Why hadn't he thought of it before? The link… that was it! Their link!

He placed himself in the bed and started focusing on tracing his link back to his Shadow.

………………..

They had arrived in Heifercourt early this morning and Suho had left immediately to make arrangements for their flight to Jaz. Chanyeol had offered to go along and Suho, not wanting to come and find another hotel room completely trashed, had agreed.

When they returned, it was to find D.O knocked out on the bed, completely lost to the world.

Suho sighed at the shredded sheets and other damage to nearly every visible surface in the room. Guess Chanyeol wasn’t the one he needed to keep an eye on, huh. Well, he would reimburse the hotel – obviously – but seriously, couldn't they ever control themselves?

Shaking his head, he went about putting things in some semblance of order before sitting down in the sofa. They had an hour before they had to leave and he didn't feel like waking D.O up. All of them were sleep deprived but D.O had been the most disturbed and Suho let him catch what little sleep he could.

Or that's what he'd planned on anyway until D.O started thrashing around, his limbs swinging around wildly and catching an unsuspecting – and half asleep – Chanyeol in the face.

'Ya!' Chanyeol sat up angrily, then yelped. 'D.O!'

Hearing the panic in his voice, Suho rushed to D.O's side and stared in shock at the bruises that were beginning to form all over his body. His puffy lips puffed up even more and purplish black bruises appeared under his eyes, his normally glowing skin getting terribly discolored. He was also trying to say something but his words made no sense.

'D.O!' Suho tapped his face, sprinkling water over him to wake him up. D.O's face twisted this way and that, then he opened his eyes.

Only it wasn't D.O who peered out.

……………………

Chen felt D.O trying to follow him back through his link and pushed him away with all his might – which wasn't much, given that he'd spent his energy in trying to reach out to his Shadow. But Evil had come back and Chen didn't think it was a good idea to let D.O in right now.

Quite apart from the fact that he'd be too busy getting his whooped to seventh heaven and back to properly greet the guy, he didn't think it was a good idea to let Evil know their link to could work this way.

Except, D.O was much stronger and despite his protests, he felt his Shadow overpowering him and then, he felt this strange ripping sensation – sort of how it felt when Kai teleported them somewhere, except this was worse – then, he opened his eyes.

And stared in shock at Suho who was looking down on him. 'Su…ho?' he croaked, unable to believe his eyes.

Suho's eyes expanded as he heard Chen in D.O's voice – there was no mistaking the guy, even though he was wearing D.O's face and body, the features had somehow molded themselves into Chen – and he let out a similar croak. 'Chen?'

'W…where am I?' He squinted like the light was too much for him and moved his arm gingerly – like every movement hurt him. Beside him, Chanyeol had yet to get over his shock.

'We're in Heifercourt, we'll be leaving for Jaz in an hour…' Suho replied automatically, then shook his head. 'That's irrelevant! Where are you? And where's D.O? What's going on?'

 'Easy man, these ears need some sweet voiced angel right now.' He winced, then yelped as Chanyeol suddenly tackled him. 'Ya!!!!'

'I knew you were alright, I knew it!' Chanyeol spoke to his neck. 'I knew it!'

Chen tapped his shoulder. 'C-an't…breathe…!'

Suho pried the huge baby who was dissolving into tears off him. Chanyeol let go of his death grip but buried his head between his knees and started crying in earnest, his shoulders shaking. Chen sat up with a groan and patted his back. 'I'm fine, really.'

'I know.' Chanyeol's deep voice was almost incomprehensible as he spoke but he lifted his head and gave a huge, wet smile.

'Chen…?'

Chen had closed his eyes and looked like he was in extreme pain. He opened them, giving a strained smile and wiping the drops of sweat off his face.

'I don't think I have much time here, so…' he stopped, biting his lip. 'Ugh, D.O… don't!'

'Chen?' Suho didn’t like how pale he was getting or the way he was acting. 'What is it?'

Chen smiled.

'Nothing, nothing I haven't experienced before… uh, where was I?' He was beginning to pant now, the bruises on his face getting deeper. A deep cut had appeared on his lip, bleeding profusely and it slowly dripped down his chin.

'Don't…'

'Ah yes… um, I'm in… the… oh crap!' He bent over suddenly and spat out a glob of blood. Wiping his mouth with trembling fingers, he gave another weak smile. 'Tell everyone not to worry, okay? I'm fine...'

His words were lost as a fit went through him, his eyes rolling shut – Chanyeol placed his hands behind his head to stop it from hitting the headboard, then D.O's body stilled, the bruises slowly beginning to fade. His eyes opened up, looking haunted.

'D.O?' Suho asked just to be sure.

'The Abyss!' He cried, sitting up hurriedly. 'The Abyss, that's where he is!'

……………………… 

A/N:

I CRY T___T