Purple wanted to go home.

He hated it down there, knowing full well Ruby was out there, alive, and they were all down there suffering.

Not that he blamed her, per say. After all, she had gotten out of there, and was hopefully at the hospital, and had given(again, hopefully) information on where they were.

So, hopefully, they'd be out soon.

(He hoped too much. They weren't getting out. He knew that full well.

Midnight was going to kill them before they even got a chance to see even a slimmer of sunshine.)

Purple hears the mayhem before he can see it.

The group wakes up to hear a familiar female voice ambushing Midnight, with glass being shattered more times than they can count.

"Ruby?"

"It's the cops! They came to rescue us!" Purple yells in excitement.

"It's about time." Sage grumbles, although they all sense his relief to be out of this hellhole.

Midnight crashes through the door of the tiny room, and all four of them jump up.

Ruby runs downstairs afterwards, and noticing Midnight has a gun, jumps on him and attempts to wrestle the weapon from his hands.

Midnight throws it from his hand accidentally, and Lilac jumps for it.

Midnight throws the other girl off of him and jumps for Purple.

"Don't go anywhere near him! I will shoot!" Lilac screams out of fear.

Midnight grabs the gun from her hands swiftly and opens fire, almost hitting Purple in the process.

Ruby screams for cops to get downstairs, and Midnight freezes.

"You little shitheads are going to pay for this." He snarled. He jumps for Purple, gun held tightly. "I should've killed you while I had the chance."

*Bang! Bang!*

Purple regains his senses and scrambles away from Midnight's limp body seconds later. Lilac helps him up.

"What the fuck just happened?" Sage whispers, staring at the body.

The kids are frozen in shock at what just transpired.

"Is…is he dead?" Lilac asks quietly.

Purple, who can barely stand at this point, notices Midnight's chest slowly rising up and down. "He's still alive, but barely." He says.

"Purple's right." Cornflower enters the room. "And holy hell, Ruby wasn't lying. You guys look terrible."

"Three months worth of hell can do that to you." Saffron said, staring at Purple.

"Okay, well, let's get you guys out of here and to the hospital."

Purple's mind goes blank. He's hardly able to comprehend "hospital" in his brain before realizing he's malnourished, dehydrated, and probably weaker than he was a couple weeks back.

He stares at the bandages on his wrists. The slits are another thing. Doubled with everything he's been through.

He notices Cornflower on the phone with someone before everyone goes black.

The next time Purple regains consciousness, he's nearly blinded.

Shit. Midnight killed him.

Just fucking great.

Once his eyes fully adjust, he damn near sobs from relief.

Oh.

He's not dead.

He's just going blind.

"Ack!"

"Green, chill!"

"Second, you scared the shit out of me!"

Wait.

What?

Green and Second were here?

But-

"Guys, he's waking up!" Blue's voice catches the two's attention, because their bickering immediately stops.

"What!"

"Hey! Purple! You in there, buddy?"

Purple tries swatting Green's hands away as best he can, since everything's still blobby as hell.

"Purple?"

"Sec, go get King."

Second runs out of the room as his vision clears.

King's here?!

Shit, where is he-

"Hey, chill. It's Green. King's outside, and Sec's going to get him. And god damn, he's gonna be relieved to know you're alive."

Blue and Yellow start asking random questions that he can almost barely answer. He's still really fucking confused.

"Is someone gonna give me a recap?"

"Cornflower got the four of you to the hospital, he called Green, we all stayed here probably past visiting hours waiting for information." Blue explained, sending glances at Green, who is downright refusing to let go of him.

"I might not know much about the subject of rape, but...I don't think Purple's comfortable with being touched right now."

Green doesn't let go hearing that. He lets go upon watching the front door.

Purple follows his gaze, and relief starts injecting itself into his body.

It's King.

Purple damn near breaks down sobbing.

King's here.

Your safe.

Second and the others go and check on Lilac and the others while King just stands there. Frozen.

Why isn't he doing anything?

Probably thinking about all the ways he's gonna murder-

King suddenly pulls him into a tight embrace.

"Your alive..."

Purple tries not to start sobbing right then and there, but he does hug him back.

God, he missed him.

He'd missed them all, but mainly King.

"Hey, kid. You okay?" King checks his face for injuries, despite probably being given the rundown when he got there.

"Do I look fine?"

How can King ask that question when he knows most of what happened?

"Right, sorry. I just-"

"I know."

King stares at him with a mix of regret and sympathy. "I'm sorry."

"King."

"No, I mean it. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. We could've prevented...all of this if I had just stayed next to you-"

"King, you couldn't have know that was going to happen."

"But...I almost lost you."

"You didn't. Try focusing on the fact that you didn't lose someone you love, insteading of blaming yourself for things out of your control. None of us saw any of that coming. It's nor your fault any of this happened."

King holds him tighter. "I'm sorry..."

Purple hugs him back, and let's him apologize for what could be nothing.

And breaks down crying.

King can hold him all he wants. Purple still wants to go home.

Midnight's just down the hall, and it's driving him crazy with the very possibility that he will survive.

"Purple, love, it's gonna be fine."

"Sure it is. He could survive."

"Very low chance. We both know this."

"And that low chance is still very much a possibility." Purple snapped.

"Baby..."

Purple sighs, trying to block Midnight out of his head. It's not working.

"He tried to make me hate you."

King blinks at the simple response Purple had definitely substituted for something else.

"What?"

"Midnight, he...he tried to make me hate you for not coming after me. When you guys backed down after Saffron escaped, you didn't try anything else afterwards, and just let him take us."

Midnight loved using that as a taunt to get Purple to break, and on numerous occasions, it had almost worked.

It never fully worked.

"Love, he had a gun to your head and was threatening to murder you. Cornflower wasn't risking a death, and I wasn't about to risk losing you...even though I did either way."

"I know, but...I don't know."

"I'm not losing you because a stupid mistake, Purple. I'd regret ever hurting you in the first place for the rest of my life."

Purple doesn't say anything.

"I lost Gold...I'm not losing you either."

The next day, Second staggers into the room, looking more drained than he did when he got there the night of the rescue.

"Jesus christ, what happened to you?!" King asks, briefly leaving Purple's side to stable him.

Second gives Purple one glance, and Purple knows.

"Is-"

"He's dead, Purple."

Green and the others runs in, stabling Second while King goes back to Purple.

"Hey? Purple?"

Purple breaks down sobbing in King's arms. He doesn't understand why. Maybe it's relief, that final solidification that he's safe and alive and isn't going back to that cellar.

He doesn't know and doesn't really care either. King just holds him until Purple passes out.

Purple's entirely out of it the next day. One second, he's laying in the hospital, bored out of his mind, and the next, King's shaking him awake in front of the house.

Hang on.

When the fuck-

"Hey? We're home."

Oh.

Thank fuck.

We're home.