OKAY IT'S NOT UP THERE ANYMORE BUT-

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[Orange Steve's POV]

I've been trying to look for a way out for a while.

Sabre collapsed a few minutes ago, and I'm pretty sure he's out. I'm not completely sure though, I can't scan him from here... so I also can't find out what Nightmare did to him.

I swear, I'm gonna beat that wack job, bee-looking, good for nothing, sorry excuse for a king's sorry-

Just then Nightmare enters the room again, walking down the hall of cells. I glare at him as he stops in front of Sabre's cell.

"What did you do to him?" I ask, as Nightmare looks in my direction.

"Oh, relax. It didn't hurt him." Nightmare scoffs. "He's merely asleep; it'll wear off in a few hours."

"Maybe it didn't hurt him, but you sure did. And you're going to regret it." I say.

"You shouldn't be so hasty. I could still make it worse." Nightmare says as he opens Sabre's cell door. "Much worse."

"What are you doing?" I say, starting to panic.

Nightmare enters the cell and goes over to Sabre, picking him up by the hood. Sabre is still unconscious.

"Hey! What are you doing with him?!" I yell. "I swear, if you-"

"Shut. Up." Nightmare says, glaring at me.

Nightmare then exits the cell and walks off into the other hallway, and I grab onto the cell bars and start screaming at him.

"HEY! WHERE ARE YOU GOING WITH HIM?! I SWEAR, WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE AND IF THERE IS SO MUCH OF A SCRATCH ON SABRE, I'M GOING TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE GONNA BE SO SCRAPPED-LOOKING PEOPLE ARE GONNA MISTAKE YOU FOR A DARKNESS CREATURE! YOU HEAR ME?!" I say. "I'LL TELL EVERYONE! I'LL TELL EVERYONE WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO US AND THEY'RE GONNA KNOW! THE OTHER KINGDOMS WILL KNOW OF YOUR CORRUPTION AND-"

"I SAID SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Nightmare yells back at me, making me flinch.

He then disappears behind the walls of wherever this is. I quickly go back to searching around the cell, looking for something to get me out of here so I can help Sabre.

Let's see... the walls don't have anything, there's nothing hidden in the sink, and there's nothing else in the cell... now that I think about it, there's not even a charge station, and there's no sunlight anywhere... is he trapping robots down here and waiting for them to-

"It's better if you don't try anything, there's not even stuff there. I would know." An unfamiliar voice says, seeming to come from behind the wall leading to another cell.

I look up, and look at the wall. I see it has a few holes in it, and through the biggest hole near the wall's corner I see a yellow face peeking through. I walk over and sit down, leveling myself with the stranger.

"What are you doing here?" I ask. "And... why are you just sitting on the floor...?"

"I-I saw too much..." The Yellow Steve says. "I saw Nightmare take one of my friends down here, and he saw me. I've been stuck down here for a while, and... I only have about a day's worth of charge left. I don't want to waste it."

"Wait, but that would mean you've been down here for almost two weeks..." I say.

"Yeah, I have. Though I'm the only one out of everyone that was here two weeks ago that's still here." The Yellow Steve replies. "First guy ran out of charge, he was in the cell next to your friend's. Second guy, the one in that cell before your friend, had a solid escape plan and got pretty close to using it. Nightmare got suspicious though, and drained him, then took him away too. Third guy... he was my friend, the one I saw get taken. He was in that cell before you were, and we made these holes in the wall so we could still talk to each other. He ran out of charge before me, a few days ago, since he would always work in the caves overnight before this..."

"...I'm so sorry." I say, feeling sad for him.

"It's okay, not like I have much chance of escaping either." Yellow Steve says. "But... you do."

"Me? Why?" I ask.

"Well, once Nightmare brings your friend back, you can break out." Yellow Steve says. "These bars were only meant to hold Yellow Steves. You're an Orange Steve. You could probably bend them enough to slip out."

"Maybe... but what about you?" I say.

"Don't worry about me, once you get out Nightmare is going to be coming right for you." Yellow Steve answers. "Besides... I'm not gonna last that long anyway. Nightmare's experiments last a long time, at least six hours, sometimes over a day. And I don't have that much time left."

I think for a moment, then pull a two-sided wire out of my pocket.

"You sure about that?" I smile.

"Wh- Where did you get one of those?" Yellow Steve asks.

"Since my people do stuff like building, mining, and gathering resources a lot, sometimes the journeys take too long and there's not a charge station anywhere or a way to get to sunlight to solar charge." I say. "So we carry these wires to share power."

"You... You'd really...?" The Yellow Steve says, sounding shocked and relieved.

"Hey, I've still got two weeks worth. You've got a day." I reply, plugging in one end of the wire to my shoulder and passing the other end through a small hole in the wall. "I'm not cruel like Nightmare is. And you're not getting left behind on my watch."

"Thank you... Thank you so much..." The Yellow Steve says as he picks up the wire.

Once he plugs in the other end to his shoulder, I feel some of my power being drained, although it's not painful in any way. We stay like that for a few hours, then he unplugs the wire and passes it back through the hole.

"Okay, I've taken enough." The Yellow Steve says.

"Are you good now?" I ask, unplugging the other end of the wire and putting it back in my pocket.

"Yeah, I am." Yellow Steve says. "I... I can't thank you enough."

"Hey, it was no problem." I say. "Now let's find a way out of here."

"We should use whatever we find after Nightmare returns your friend. Breaking out first and trying to get him back now is too risky, I have no idea what Nightmare could be doing to him." Yellow Steve says. "By the way, your friend... was that actually a...?"

"Human, yeah. His name is Sabre." I answer, double-checking the bricks in the walls. "We've met Nightmare before this, when we were trying to gather the Crystals."

"He's the prophesied human?!" The Yellow Steve quietly exclaims. "Oh my goodness..."

"Yep, that too." I say. "And Nightmare's in a boatload of trouble once I tell my village and my other friends, and they'll probably tell their friends. Everyone's not only gonna know what he did to Sabre... but what he's been doing to your kingdom too."

"Thank you... again." Yellow Steve says.

"And again, no problem." I say.

We keep searching.

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It's been many, many hours, and we've barely found anything.

I can actually bend the cell bars, so there's that, but I had to quickly bend it back so Nightmare doesn't get suspicious. Yellow Steve couldn't find anything.

We're taking a break from looking for a way to escape. It's best not to panic about this, and we need to stay calm.

Suddenly, Nightmare walks back into the hall, carrying Sabre by the hood again. I silently glare at him from my cell as he opens the cell door across from me. He then just tosses Sabre inside the cell, and Sabre hits the ground with a 'thud'.

"HEY!" I yell, worried for Sabre.

"He's fine." Nightmare says, glaring right back at me.

Nightmare then leaves the room again, and I scramble to the bars of my cell and look at Sabre. Somehow, he's still fast asleep. What's really worrying me is that his hoodie's right sleeve has dark red staining on it... I hope he's okay.

I see Yellow Steve is looking at Sabre too. Understandable, he said earlier he had never even seen a picture of a human before, having always worked inside the kingdom.

"He's so small..." Yellow Steve says quietly.

"Heh, everyone always says that when they first meet him." I say. "I just hope that Sabre's okay..."

"Even Nightmare isn't crazy enough to cause harm to a human, the prophesied one no less, so I'm sure nothing too drastic happened." Yellow Steve says. "What's on his arm, though, is worrying."

Yellow Steve and I talk for a while, waiting for Sabre to finally wake up. Soon enough, I see Sabre twitch a little, and he slowly sits up.

"Whuh happened...?" Sabre mumbles, looking up at me as he rubs his eye.

"Hey buddy, glad you're alright." I smile. "Nightmare took you after you passed out, I don't know what he did. Me and this Yellow Steve have been trying to figure out a way to get outta here."

"I-I can help!" Sabre says, shakily getting up and standing.

"Woah, careful. Whatever Nightmare used on you might still be wearing off." I warn Sabre.

"I'm okay, just- Ow!" Sabre says, then suddenly exclaims, clutching his right arm.

"Sabre? What's wrong?" I ask, worried.

"My- My arm..." Sabre says. "It hurts..."

"What did he do...?" The Yellow Steve mumbles.

"I'll look at it once we get out of these cells, just hang on, okay?" I say, then go back to looking for something to help us escape.

It's quiet for a moment, then I hear something rustling around. Sabre calls out to me when I look up.

"Hey, check- Ow- Check this out!" Sabre says, using a broken bucket that was in his cell as a stepstool to look inside the sink. He's holding up a bunch of materials.

"Sabre, your arm-" I start to say, but Sabre cuts me off.

"I'm fine, just l-look at this!" Sabre says, holding up the materials. "I'm pretty sure I can make a bow and a few arrows out of these!"

"That was part of the escape plan the guy in that cell before you had..." Yellow Steve says. "He was going to try and use an arrow shot to distract Nightmare while he got out somehow."

"Sabre, you know how to make a bow and arrows?" I say, surprised.

"Hey, if you lived where I did, you'd have to be resourceful from whatever you could find." Sabre says as he steps down and starts assembling the pieces.

He works on it for a while, but eventually Sabre holds up a makeshift bow and three arrows. They actually look pretty well made.

Sabre then gets up, and tries to use the bow to hit one of the buttons that are on the wall. I can tell he's struggling as he tries to use his injured arm to pull back the string.

"One o-of these has to open the cells, r-right?" Sabre says, trying to aim.

"Sabre, don't. Your arm is injured. You might make it worse." I say. "Just pass the bow to one of us."

"Okay..." Sabre says, putting the bow down.

"Orange, you're closer to the wall than I am." The Yellow Steve says. "You'd have a clearer shot."

"Alright, I'll shoot. Let's just hope this works." I say.

Sabre gets the bow through one of the slots between the cell bars and slides it over to me, followed by the three arrows. I aim the bow at the wall, trying to decide which button to hit.

"Should I just go with the middle one?" I ask.

"I think I've seen Nightmare use that one before... not sure though." Yellow Steve says.

"Going with the middle button always works for me." Sabre shrugs.

I take a minute to process that.

"What...?" I ask Sabre. "Sabre, have you broken out of a jail cell before?"

"Uh- Uhm- Just shoot." Sabre says.

I fire the arrow, and it hits the middle button head on. Suddenly, all of the cell doors open, and the three of us rush out of the cells. Sabre immediately runs over to me, and I pick him up and hug him gently.

"Well, that was easier than I'd thought." Yellow Steve says.

"Yeah, same here." I say, then I look down at Sabre. "Okay Sabre, let me see your arm."

"Alright..." Sabre says, as he grabs his hoodie's sleeve.

As soon as Sabre rolls up his sleeve, I'm shocked at what I see.

On his forearm is a bunch of hastily done, bloodied stitches. They run from just below his wrist to a few inches before his elbow. The skin around it is pinched by the tough thread, and it's just an all-around shoddy job. It looks painful... I don't even want to know what Nightmare did to cause this. Glancing at Sabre, he looks terrified.

"Oh, good lord..." Yellow Steve says, seeing the stitches.

"I am so kicking Nightmare's butt." I say, putting Sabre's sleeve back.

"W-We gotta get out of here first." Sabre says. "I dunno about you, but I've had enough of this place."

"Uh, yeah. I want to go home..." Yellow Steve says.

"And we'll get you home. Do you know if Nightmare is still down here by now?" I ask.

"I don't know, if he has a way to leave other than teleporting I've never seen it." Yellow says.

"Wait, teleporting!" Sabre says. "Orange, remember what the Leader said about you guys going to the surface whenever you teleport underground?"

"Does teleporting work down here...?" I say, catching on.

"I don't know. I never tried it, but a few people did." Yellow Steve says. "And they always got hurt... it looked like Nightmare put something to keep us from teleporting."

"But like you said earlier, his defenses weren't built for keeping in another color." I say. "Maybe I can teleport us out of here."

"Be careful, Orange..." Sabre says, clutching onto me.

Yellow Steve walks closer to me so he's in range, as I charge my power. An amber glow appears in my hand, and Sabre closes his eyes as it surrounds us, lightning striking.

The last thing I see before we teleport out is Nightmare Steve quickly running into the room, his expression a mix of panicked and angry.

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We reach a plains, standing next to a lake. I recognize where we are; This is near the Yellow Kingdom.

"I'm out..." Yellow Steve says quietly, looking up at the afternoon sky. "I'm finally out..."

"Yeah, you can go home now, buddy." I smile at the Yellow Steve. "Just make sure to charge first. And you might want to lay low once you're back in the Kingdom; You know, still tell people, but be really careful about it."

"I will... Thank you two so much." Yellow Steve says, smiling back.

"H-Hey, Orange did everything. I was out cold." Sabre says, giggling a little. I notice he's curling himself around his arm, putting pressure on the wound. That might help a little...

"Still, thank you." The Yellow Steve says. "I'll tell everyone- They're going to know what Nightmare Steve has done to all of us."

"Good, and I'm sure the Orange Village is gonna have your backs too." I say. "We're all, uh... protective of Sabre."

"Alright. I'm gonna go home now... I've missed it, despite what's been going on." Yellow Steve says.

"Goodbye, Yellow Steve." I say, waving a little.

"Bye! B-Be careful!" Sabre adds.

Yellow Steve smile at us, then quickly runs off in the direction of the Yellow Kingdom. I then look at Sabre, who's still clutching his arm.

"It's time for us to go home, too." I say. "We can stop there for a minute to get a better look at your arm, then I can contact the Village to see if anyone can help."

"Okay." Sabre says. "I hope nothing bad happened at the Hub while we were gone..."

"Probably not, since we were only stuck down there for about..." I say, quickly checking my internal clock. "A bit under 24 hours. I'm sure nothing terrible has happened."

I then teleport us back to the Hub, also ready to go home.

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[Meanwhile, at the Rainbow Hub...]

"WHERE IN THE HECK ARE THEY?!" The Orange Leader exclaims, panicked.

"They've been missing for almost a day, I swear if anything's happened to either of them..." Happy says, continuing to look around the Hub.

These two are joined by Shy and Funny, with Gerald panickedly running around and trying to get their attention. Nobody knows what he's trying to do, because they don't know Morse Code.

Suddenly, lightning strikes in the gazebo, making the group look there. Orange Steve, carrying Sabre, appears and walks out from underneath the gazebo's roof.

The group of Orange Steves and Gerald rush over to the two.

"WHERE ON EARTH HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN?!" Funny says, Orange looking blankly at them.

Orange doesn't know how to put this lightly... although Sabre is way ahead of him.

"We got kidnapped." Sabre says nonchalantly.

"YOU WHAT?!"

'This is gonna be a long day...' Orange Steve thinks as his friends panic in front of him.