Disclaimer: I do not own Ranger's Apprentice or any of its characters

Sorry for the wait, I was stuck for a while on this and I'm still not sure it's good...

Anyways, I just realized that I've passed the 50000 word mark! And that's without Author's Notes! Yay! Anyways, onto the chapter!

He was in a haze and he heard far off voices. It was as if he were listening from somebody else's body besides his own. As if he was somebody else trapped inside his own body. He was numb and couldn't feel anything, like he had simply shut down the part of his brain that felt pain or anything else. There was more indistinct talking. He tried to open his eyes but they were heavy and it took a lot of work. The voices stopped and he tried to say something but that too took a lot of effort. He didn't even bother to try and move. Gathering what little remained of his strength, Halt forced his eyelids open.

The room was dark but he recognized it as the one he had been in before the execution. The moonlight filtered in through the windows and cast an eerie glow. His breathing was ragged and his vision was a bit fuzzy not to mention he felt sick and a bit off. He still felt he were separate from his own body. Somebody was pacing in front of the windows, a habit that annoyed him greatly.

"Stop," he tried to say but it came out as a low moan. Whoever had been pacing stopped and hurried to his side.

"Halt?" the man said. Halt recognized the voice and looked up to see the man's face. It was Crowley. He had a large slash under his eye and Halt frowned.

"Crowley," he said. His voice was weak, rough and almost indistinct but understandable if one was really listening. It took a moment for Halt to remember who Crowley was. Along with the commandant's identity came the memory of stabbing Feller. He had to tell Crowley but he wasn't completely lucid and his brain was moving slowly.

"Halt!" Crowley said in a relieved tone. "Halt, are you okay? Come on, wake up," he said. Halt frowned; he was awake. At least in a sense he was. Nothing seemed wrong to him; he didn't feel like he was hurt and he didn't recall anything bad happening at the execution. He had just avoided the axe blow and the rest was darkness. As he tried to remember what happened, his head began to throb.

"W…wha's happenin'?" he asked, his words were slurred and his vision had black spots. He was feeling dizzy as well and felt incredibly weak. Halt thought for a moment, there was something he had to tell Crowley. Something important but his sluggish mind took a while to realize that it was about Feller and stabbing.

"Halt, you were hit by the arrow. Come on, don't go back to sleep. You'll be fine," Crowley said hurriedly. Halt didn't respond immediately and Crowley saw his eyes drifting closed. "No. Halt, come on, wake up."

"I…I stabbed Feller," Halt tried to say but he was too weak and it came out as an indistinguishable murmur. With that, his eyelids slid closed again and he lay still.

Crowley cursed and stood up straight. Running a hand through his hair, the commandant kicked a nearby chair angrily. It spun into the wall and shattered. He cursed again and started pacing. He was the reason this was happening. That was the only thing he could think of and his grief was slowly dissolving into anger. Hot tears rolled down his face as he looked back to Halt. His chest was red with useless bandages on it and his breathing was shallow. Crowley stormed out of the room irritably; he needed fresh air or something to get him away from the sight of Halt and to calm down. As he was leaving the room, his cowl flipped up to hide his distraught face, he ran into a pair of healers. They had bandages in their hands but they didn't seem to look like the other healers with caring features. Ignoring it and wrapped up in his self-anger, Crowley shoved past them and headed down the corridor, away from the room. He was rounding a turn in the hallway when he ran into Pauline. She looked much like she had for the past few days with slightly puffy eyes and a miserable expression.

"Sorry," Crowley mumbled as he helped her off the floor. Pauline stood and there was an awkward silence.

"How is he?" she asked. It took Crowley a moment to realize she was talking about Halt.

"I honestly don't know if he's going to make it. He woke up a few seconds ago but slipped right back under. He may have a concussion but the blood loss is what's looking really bad at the moment. When I left there were two healers heading in with more bandages. When he was being examined earlier they said the arrow hit him in the breastbone and it may have saved him but he has so many other injuries," Crowley said wearily. He hadn't had a proper sleep for some time now. His anger was starting to fade somewhat and he sat down with his head resting against his knees. "It shouldn't even be him," Crowley said. "I stabbed Feller in the first place. If it weren't for me he wouldn't have had to…to stab him again." The two lapsed into a long silence. "I should…I should go back. In case he wakes up again," Crowley said as he stood up. Pauline did the same.

"I'm going with you," she said.

"Are you sure?" Crowley asked. He knew it was hard seeing Halt for him, he didn't know what it'd be like for her. She nodded and they started back towards Halt's room. Crowley paused outside the door, his hand resting on the door handle. No matter how many times he'd looked at Halt, he could never get used to the pallor of Halt's face or the weak appearance he had. Taking a deep breath, Crowley opened the door and froze. Halt's bed was empty.

He rushed towards the bed in a frenzy and froze yet again. Written on the bedclothes in Halt's bloody bandages were the words: Come to me or he dies.

Please review, I would like to thank TugLover98 who somewhat helped me think of this idea:) Thank you!