Two weeks.

They were in his clutches for two weeks when Finn busted in to save them.

Two weeks they had been interrogated, beaten, and bloodied for the information they might hold.

And then the building collapsed.

The plan has been a simple get in and get out, but Zundapp had been wary of things like this, and had set several booby traps. Finn avoided the first 5, but stepped on the 6th(whose existence astonished him, Zundapp always used 3 or 5, he hated even numbers)and one bomb ha gone off, creating a domino effect of destruction. eventually the structure of the building was weakened too much to hold and the whole thing came down. After miraculously avoiding injury, Finn signalled his back up to help clear the rubble and get him and his friends out. After unearthing what seemed like the entire building, they found the prisoners, who were blessedly unconscious. If they had been awake, they would have been feeling their injury's. Leland had his forearm trapped under a large piece of concrete, and Lightning's left foot was stuck as well. Mater had been missed by the falling rubble for the most part, he did have a horrible looking bump on his head though.

After airlifting the three to the nearest hospital, they seemed to be healing well, but due to patient-doctor confidentiality Finn wasn't told the extent of their injures. It was quite obvious Lelands and Lightnings, because as soon as he walked in to visit them he noticed a distinct lack of body parts that had been there before. For the most part they were healing well physically, but psychologically?

There was something wrong with Leland, and definitely something wrong with Mater. Lightning and Leland were, of course, showing the usual mood swings for their situations, but Leland and Mater were... darker. Angrier, almost. Mater didn't smile as much and he often caught Leland staring at him with contempt and even hatred in his eyes. When Finn had been sneaking int his hideout, Finn had over heard Zundapp boasting about how good his sidekick plan was going, and how soon enough he'd have a trained spy on his side, but he had also talked about breaking the tow truck driver and the racer, and if that was true why didn't Lightning act as dark as they did?

On the day before they were scheduled to leave, Finn decided to ask him about it.

"My family moved around a lot, and we'd always live in the bad side of towns, y'know, the places people would clutch their purses a little tighter, or carry pepper spray while checking their mail... Anyway, Professor Z was trying to convince us to do bad things, and if we refused he beat us." He scratched the back of his head, "It wasn't all that different, I mean, don't get me wrong there were a lot of good people where my family was, but a lot of local gangs hung out around there. I wasn't a big kid, and since I was white they'd try and get me to steal stuff for them. Basically they would try to get me to do bad things, and when I refused they'd beat me up."

Finn was surprised at all the information he was willingly sharing, and he didn't stop there, "So I guess I was just used to it? Maters' back story isn't that tragic, really. His mom and dad died when he was 20, which sucks, but he had a relatively easy childhood. It was smooth riding, and his naive nature makes it really easy to manipulate him... And Leland, he's tougher than both of us, but he'd already been there for a long time... Months, even, and he'd only just begun to break."

Worry laced Lightnings eyes, "We went through hell together, and it was kinda my job to keep everyone together. Leland... I tried Finn, but he broke. He gave into Zundapps coaxing, he played along! And when he was thrown back in with us he was basically comatose, lost in his own mind. I didn't know what to do, I was so scared, Finn. Leland broke and Mater wasn't far behind... So I did something rash."

Fear wormed it's way into Finn's mind. What could he have possibly done?

"I made Zundapp mad."

And Finn froze. All thoughts slowed and wrapped around those words. Making Zundapp mad was about the worst and best thing he could have done. On one hand, it drew his attention from Mater and Leland, on another hand it drew his attention to you. He would be harsher, and less inclined to give you time to heal.

"Oh." He said simply, to taken aback to attempt to form anything more coherent than that.

Lightning turned his head away from Finn and looked out the window. It was a beautiful day out, opposite of how he felt inside.

"He got better." he whispered gently, "He became more active when they stopped coming for him as much. He ate more. I did my best."

"I know." Finn soothed quietly.

He turned towards him suddenly, face serious and eyes dark, "He's still broken, Finn. He's still comatose. Who ever that Leland is in there, he isn't who you used to know. Zundapp got through to him, Zundapp changed him. He doesn't have that sense of justice he used to have. He's dark, an honestly he might not be able to be saved, and you have to accept that Finn. You have to know that if it comes down to it, you'll have to do the right thing."

Finn felt sick. He knew he would have to do the right thing! He didn't need Lightning to tell him that!... But was it so bad to not want to? He knew Leland for years. He was his best friend. His most trusted confidant. He didn't want to kill him, he didn't want him to turn traitor. He didn't want a lot of things.

Finn stood up and turned to go, but his hand hung on the door knob for a long time as he tried to figure out something to say. Something to end the conversation with.

He opened the door and left, letting it have the last word with a quiet but solid click.

yea enjoy