Antonio arrived outside the inconspicuous building in a police car, but refused to look. After a moment, when the passenger was about to get out of the car, he spoke for the first time in three hours. "Let me go in first." The chains rattled on his wrist. "Please. He's gotta be so scared."

The two officers still didn't believe him about this, but their chief had been more sympathetic, and gave the Nation this one chance to prove what was going on. One sighed and let Antonio out, helping him out by the handcuffs. "You've got five minutes.

He nodded, grateful for this opportunity. The front door was open. He walked in calmly, unafraid.

There was nothing unusual about the main rooms aside from their dusty barrenness. It looked as though no one had been there in years. A sudden pang of doubt in Antonio's chest made itself known. Was this the wrong building? Had the sick bastard lied to him with his last bloody breath? One wrong address would condemn him to three months in prison, and Lovino would be dead by then.

"Lovi?"

Downstairs, a limp body twitched against the wall. He slowly woke up with a pathetic groan. Had they come back? Lovino was starting to believe that his tormentors had abandoned him. He was ready to suffer months of starvation, maybe years: it had to be better than these last sixteen weeks.

"Lovi? Are you here?"

He flinched. The masked sadists spoke English and only English, and knowing this gave him some small glimmer of hope now. "Hello?" he called out, voice cracking and barely audible. Seven weeks. He hadn't had any cause to speak for seven weeks. "H-Hello?" he tried again.

He thought for a moment he was dreaming. The door, sounding like it was kicked open, slid aside to white light, and for a moment Lovino thought he maybe had finally died.

But the light faded away, and primal fear set in. He flinched away from the silhouette in the doorway. "Please… no more…"

"Lovi... Lovi can you hear me?" It looked so much like Antonio, sixteen weeks too late to save him.

He stared, convince this was actually a dream, or a hallucination. The drugs may not have worn off after all. "No… No, you're not real!"

Antonio crouched in front of him. He almost couldn't see him through the matted hair. "I'm real. I'm here.

"No… No…" He couldn't look the figure in the eye.

"I'm right here." He cupped his face gently, upset but not surprised when Lovino jerked his head back, hitting against the stone wall.

"Please… Please don't do this to me…" As if the physical and psychological torture wasn't enough, now they were trying to break him emotionally too.

"What do you think I'm doing to you?"

"You- You wanna break me!" He wasn't sure he could be broken further. There was nothing left.

Antonio swallowed hard, bile running down his throat. "I'd never try and break you, darling."

"You would! That- That's all you've been doing!"

"I'm not one of them though. Im Antonio. I'm your Antonio."

"You're not really him, you're not really here…"

"What can I do to prove to you it's really me, that I'm really here?"

Lovino flinched, his voice becoming more familiar and heartbreaking. "You aren't! If… If you were you'd get me out of here!"

Antonio smiled softly and touched Lovino's hair gently. The back of his head was sticky with dried blood. "I am here to get you out of here."

He stared at him for a moment, but still couldn't meet his eyes. Whether or not he believed Antonio was really there, when would he ever get this chance again? "Please…"

Antonio, grateful to have been given the go ahead, started working at the bolts on the wall. The chains were rusty and Lovino's wrists were raw and bloody. Antonio felt sick finding how Lovino wasn't healing properly in here, or otherwise had been hurt so badly that it was taking more time. He knew the abductors hadn't been down here since the previous night, at least. He pried the chains off its strained bolts. Lovino, unable to support himself, crumpled to the ground.

Antonio dropped to his knees and, struggling, started to help Lovino up off the ground. Beyond the door of this prison he could hear the officers coming in. Lovino tensed up as they entered, but Antonio hushed him gently. "I'm right here, my love. You're going to come home now." He heard Lovino sob at that. "You're gonna be just fine."

Lovino's captors had relished his tears, and so he'd work to stop the tears whenever they threatened to spill. Despite everything, he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing him break. But emotions flooded over, and he couldn't hold himself back any longer. Antonio held him, letting him cry.

"They… They hurt me, Toni…"

"I know." He said "I know, love. I know."

"I-I-… I can't walk…"

"You don't need to."

The more skeptical officer, bound to the deal they'd made, uncuffed Antonio. Antonio wanted to just hold Lovino to his chest and never let go again, but he needed to get his fiance out of there as soon as possible. He scooped him up, startled by how easy it was, and carried him out to the waiting ambulance.

Lovino pressed his face into Antonio's shoulder and tried not to cry out in pain. It was unfairly sunny outside, and the light alone overwhelmed him. He shook violently in Antonio's arms as he started to fade out again.

"Lovi? You're gonna be alright…"