Ryo and Axel turn towards the soldier who stopped them. He holds out the delivery paper. “Don’t forget this, it needs to be verified with the warden.”

Ryo takes it, bowing in the process. The doors close behind them, trapping them in a room dimly lit by a few candles and wall torches. Most of the furniture either is rotting away or broken down into scraps of junk. Pieces of broken ceiling crumbling onto the floor. With no sign of upkeep, the building looks like it’s been abandoned over a few decades. Only proof of its occupation is books lining shelves and a few newer tables against the walls. In front of them the room splits off to a hallway and stairs leading to the basement. Ryo glances in both directions.

“Looks like we need to split up. Try not to get into any trouble?” He looks at Axel.

“Why do I need to go down the stairs?”

“Do you remember the plan?”

A few hours prior, Ryo and Axel come out of Vince’s bedroom back at his hideaway home, they are dressed in extra suits he had for traveling. In the living room, Rongz, Philarce and Vince gather around the table to discuss their plans. Thanks to Dr. Briggins Bruce relaxes comfortably on the couch. Treatment for the position remains ongoing, with Ian inserting the antidote into Bruce’s bloodstream every other hour. Ryo and Axel join the rest taking their places at seats across from Vince.

“Looks like we are ready. Who are we going to contact?” Vince asks Rongz.

“His name is Allen. Joined up a month or so ago.” Rongz pushes a photo forward. A young man wearing a tank top, and ripped pants with his arm’s cross stares back at them.

“Definitely has a rebel feeling to him.” Ryo comments.

“We didn’t find his body, so we assume he was captured alive.” Rongz says. “Find where their keeping the prisoners and get him out.”

Vince rolls open a diagram layout of the detection facility. “Looks like it would be the basement. It doubled as a jail way before Adam became mayor of the city. It was supposed to be abandoned and closed.”

“Sources say otherwise.” Rongz glances at Philarce.

“With the execution in a few days, we need to act fast.” Vince hands Ryo a delivery order. “Thank goodness I had an order for the location. However, it needs to be verified before the products can be delivered. That will be the job of you two.” Vince smiles.

“Right when we are ready, we can head out.” Ryo agrees.

“We just break in, knock some soldiers unconscious and break this Allen out of prison!’ Axel balls his hands into fist, determined to dominate their infiltration.

“Try not to draw too much attention to yourselves. We don’t know the full extent of their forces and battle prowess. Sneak in and sneak him out.” Vince tells Axel, dashing any hopes of butt kicking. “If you can find out if anything is there about why that facility is being used or clues to why the soldiers are here.” Vince’s attention turns to Ryo.

“Of course. Let’s get going.” Ryo stands from his position, grabbing Axel by his collar and dragging him out the door.

“Hey! I can walk on my own.” Axel’s complaining grows faint the further away they get.

Axel snaps back to reality, and sighs. “Okay fine. I will go downstairs, and you search up here.”

“Don’t cause any trouble.” Ryo warns Axel. He leaves down the hallway first, leaving Axel alone just in front of the stairs.

Axel carefully makes his way down a dim stairway into the basement floor. At the bottom, lines of cells sit against both walls. Little sunlight from the outside barely lights up the environment five feet in front of him. No guards near the desk gives him the clear to search each cell one by one. The eerie quietness occasionally breaks between water dripping from loose piping and the painful groans from captured prisoners. The smell of rotting food, and musky infections burn Axel’s nose. He investigates the first cell, stopping dead in his tracks. Two prisoners lay sprawled out covered in blood, their arms and legs cut up without any treatment. Axel tries to hold back a gag reflex, the sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach grows.

“What the...” He whispers, covering his nose and mouth.

Each cell he investigates the same thing fills his vision. Torture prisoners with untreated wounds, barely hanging onto life or even their sanity. He comes to the end of the hall, and a groan catches his attention. At his feet, the merchant clings to his cell bars.

“My family…my family...” He mumbles the same words repeatedly.

Across from the merchant’s cell, a voice speaks to Axel. “Who the hell are you?” It’s defiant, unshaking words get his attention. He turns to barely see a young man, sitting at the far end of his cell. On the bed, the man stares at him. Though wounds cover every inch of his body, he hides any pain or weakness.

“First off, are you Allen?” Axel asks back.

“Who wants to know?” Allen doesn’t hide his snappy attitude of defiance.

“Look, I’m here to break you out of here.”

“Don’t want to.” Allen turns his nose up to Axel. “It doesn’t matter anyways.” Even with his defiance, a small hint of resignation hangs over his words.

“It’s bad enough I can’t knock some sense into these solders. I’m close to picking a fight with you too!”

Allen gets off the bed, and strolls over the bars. “I don’t need your help. If I put my mind to it.” Not only his words, but Allen’s attitude gets under Axel’s skin.

“You are going to be executed in a few days.” Axel doesn’t hold his words back.

After splitting up, Ryo searches the first floor. He moves against the wall until a few soldiers come up the hallway. The first room he comes to, Ryo slips inside, closing the door behind him. A cold chill hits his back. From behind, wall torches trigger on from the presence of the individual who entered. Papers litter the tables, with multiple large posters attached to the wooden walls. Images from ships to caves and images of various plant life are some of the many photos scattered around. Ryo steps up to the center table, moving a few pages aside. Underneath one dirty, ripped parchment paper unravels. His eyes widen, a single blue jewel is circled on it.

“What the…” A sharp pain shoots through his head, causing Ryo to stumble back. “I’ve…seen this…” His eyes shut tight. Blur movements flash through his mind. Frustrated, he tries to force the blurriness to clear up but only a tightened pain encompasses his head. Unable to bear it, he turns his face away from the photo. Collapsing near one of the other tables, he tries to steady himself. Pirates. Stone. Book. Capture. From various books the same words keep popping out to him.

“What was that?” An icy feeling pushes its way through his eyes, back down to his fingertips. It lingers a moment, exiting his nails as a blue speckle dust.

Just outside the door, two voices grow louder with approaching footsteps. The doorknob twists with a click, and two people enter the room. A guard lingers just inside the door, and a older gentleman strolls up to the table. He shifts through the papers, picking out a few including the one with the jewel on it. Near one of the bookcases, Ryo pushes himself against the wall, staying in the shadows. The quietness is shattered by the man slamming his fist on the table.

“What the hell?! We beat and tortured those prisoners, and they still can’t tell us where it is! That damn Xander said it would be easy! We don’t have any clues yet!“ He bellows in anger.

“Now we need to plan for that execution too. Has he lost his mind!?” Through all his tantrum, he stops midway. Ryo peeks to see him brushing the papers onto the floor and scanning the parchment again. Without another word he turns heel and leaves the room. The guard behind him closes the door. Left in silence, a sense of urgency washes over Ryo, he slips from the room, towards the downstairs.

“Alright then, tell us about what happened during the raid.” Ryo comes up from behind Axel. Allen stares down his intimidating stare but almost gives in right away.

“It was a setup, alright. Someone sold us out, the soldiers said as much. They got our plans of time and knew when to attack and where.” Allen explains to them. “Some of the group didn’t even put up resistance but were cut down too.” This time his voice cracks slightly. Images of the one side dominance of the raid plague him like a nightmare. “Here isn’t much better. The cries for help that have slowly faded into a dead silence over time.” Allen’s gaze trails off to the side.

“Hey check down there! Make sure that nothing is out of place!” A familiar voice of the warden rings out. Multiple footsteps thunder down the stairs.

“Great now what?” Axel looks further down the cell block.

Allen hits the bars on his cell. “Down at the end is a side door slip out of that.” He tells them.

Without another word, Axel and Ryo make their way to the side door, up one set of stairs, and slipping out another door into the bright sun. In that moment, they realize it’s the same door where the carriage was parked earlier. They both take off down the path, circling back to their original hiding spot.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the house, Bruce sits up on the couch. Most of the poison made its way out of his system, he tries to recall events prior to being in the sea. Ian kneels beside him retaking some of his vitals. Vince greets Ryo and Axel offering them a seat. During the conversation, Axel mentions Allen, Bruce almost falls off his seat.

“You met my son?!” Bruce shouts. “How is he? What is going on?!” Those words triggered a flash of memories through Bruce’s mind. The scenes flipped like a flip book adding to his sickening stomach. He collapses back on the couch trying to get his thoughts straight.

“Calm down. You’re going to collapses again.” Ian warns him.

“I remember.” Bruce leans up. “I was having a meeting with Adam. He…changed somehow. His eyes…they were dark almost lifeless. I was trying to figure out why he was passing so many of those pointless hurtful laws. But he wouldn’t tell me anything!” His agitation grows. “I was fed up and left angry. Just outside I overheard that there was going to be a raid on this group to put the citizens in their place. I know my son said he was part of it, so I wanted to warn him.”  He pauses.

“And then?” Vince tries to get him to continue.

“Everything blacked out. Next thing I knew I was in the middle of the sea, hanging onto a board for dear life.” Bruce drops his head in his hands.

“Okay that’s enough, anymore and you will be relapsing.” Ian pushes him back down onto the couch.

Vince at the table places his chin on his folded hands. “The big picture comes together. I heard from a few people that the mayor’s recent attitude change happened recently, but I didn’t believe it. So, this mysterious group of people showed up a few months ago, and that was when Adam began to change. Then when the word of the resistance came up, they decided to paint them as pirates giving the reason to either kill or arrest them.”

“It looks like they are trying to find something, from what I saw.” Ryo says.

“I also saw other people locked up down there. It seems some people who caused a disturbance and were arrest are also held there.” Axel adds.

“Bottom line is…we need to visit Adam personally to find out what is going on. While also stopped the execution in a few days” Vince rises to his feet.

“At least we have time to come up with a plan to save them.” Ryo says.

Rongz points to the city map. “Well then how do we-“

A loud banging startles the group out of their deep thoughts. One of Rongz subordinates’ stumbles into the room, out of breath. Sweat runs down his face, and he takes in a few deep gasps of air to calm himself. He falls to his hands and knees, coughing in the fresh air. Rongz goes over, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Take a deep breath. What happened?”

“Their…dying…morning….” He coughs out.

“What?” Axel asks.

The man grips Rongz by his collar, yanking himself up using Rongz’s sturdy figure. “They changed the execution time! It won’t be in a few days. They will be killed tomorrow morning at sun rise!”

The whole room falls into an eerie silence.