The moment the door closed behind Daniel, Max started wiggling as hard as he could, trying to free his bonds. He managed to get one of his wrists free and began tugging at the rope, working to undo the tight knot. His skin was chafing and before long it broke and began to bleed.

But Max was skinny, and his wrists were thin. He bit through the pain and managed to raunch the other hand free.

Carefully he brought his arms back round to his sides. They were really sore and his wrists and hands were grazed and shaking. Max took a deep breath, rolling his aching shoulders, and brought a palm up to massage his broken jaw. It still hurt so much that he couldn't open it further than to speak. He sat still for a moment, breathing deeply through his nose, and he then bent over and started untying the ropes around his legs and feet.

When he was finally finished he stretched out his legs and groaned, feeling the blood rushing back into them. There was nothing in the hallway to use as a crutch, but Max realised when he shakily got to his feet, that he could stand by himself as long as he didn't put too much weight on his bandaged leg. He glanced around and then picked up the chair he had been tied to, turned and slotted the top bar of it under the door handle of the room in which Daniel and David were still. He felt a little bad about locking David in with that maniac, but it would at least buy him some time, and then he found Steven and the gems they could get him out.

Then, leaning heavily against the wall, Max began his half stumble, half hobble, along the corridor. It took him a painstaking amount of time but he finally reached the corner. Staring down each way, he saw he was at a crossroads: he could either go left, right, back where he can come, or straight onwards.

"Shit..." Max sighed.

But suddenly he heard something- stopping, he listened hard and realised it was singing... Someone was singing. Max held his breath and strained his ears: then he recognised Steven's voice. He had no idea what he was singing, but Max could now follow the sound of his voice. It was coming from the right path. Slowly, Max stumbled, hopped and leant his way down the wall towards Steven's song.

Presently Max came to a labyrinth of bizarre cages and odd futuristic  structures. The singing was much louder now. The cages didn't have doors on them; instead what looked like a thin sheet of light beams sheened over the small prisons inside.

"Steven?" Max called, as loudly as he dared. "Steven? It's Max!"

The singing suddenly stopped.

"Max?"

It wasn't long before Max found the cage where Steven was trapped behind the laser like wall.

"Max! Are you okay?" Steven asked at once.  

"Eh.. I'll live," Max grunted. "How do we get out of here?"

"I can't touch it, it electrocutes me," Steven said.

Steven yelled at Max reached out and poked the wall without hesitation. Max wasn't afraid of pain. Not anymore.

But to their surprise, it didn't do anything.

"It must be because you're fully human and I'm half gem!" Steven gasped.

"Yeah?" Max said absently. He made an arch with his hands and Steven ducked under it, having to crouch because Max was so short.

When Steven straightened up he pulled Max into a hug. Max went to pull away, out of pure instinct, but after a moment he thought just fuck it, and gave Steven a quick squeeze before releasing him.

"You sure you're OK?" Steven asked him worriedly.

"I'm OK," Max said, managing a small smile. He suddenly noticed the deep bruise forming on Steven's temple. "But you're not..." he pointed to it.

"Huh? Oh, this? Nah, I'm fine, honestly," Steven said, waving him away. "You've got some pretty impressive colours going on too-" he pointed to the choke marks around Max's neck.

"David will have a mare..." Max groaned.

"Where is David?" Steven asked. "How did you get away?"

"Oh, never mind that now," Max said. "Let's just find a way out and then we can go back for David."

"Alright. Can you walk okay without crutches?" Steven asked doubtfully.

Max hesitated.

"...ish?" He said.

"Right, get on my back, I'll carry you."

"Excuse me?"

"Come on Max, we don't have much time."

"No way!"

"Max," Steven hissed. "If you walk, you'll slow us down and you might hurt yourself even more! Get on my back!"

Max growled.

"Do it!" Steven said.

Max climbed up with a face like thunder. Steven gasped when he was on.

"What?" Max asked quickly. "What is it? Am I too heavy?"

"...no," Steven said in surprise, setting off down the corridor cautiously. "You're really, really light. It shocked me."

Max coloured.

"Well... what do you expect?" He huffed. "I'm short. And the food at camp's shit, and it's not like I'm gonna be eating much at home..."

He trailed off as he felt Steven stiffen.

"I mean, yeah, I'll have the odd tin of beans or whatever," he said quickly, trying to regain control over the conversation. They rounded a sharp corner and saw even more labyrinthine cages. Steven stopped.

"Max," he said quietly. "Whatever you're going through at home, it... it's not normal."

Max knew he had said too much.

"When this is all over, I promise you we'll make it right. And I also promise you that I will get you a three course meal."

Max tried to laugh, but the pain in his broken jaw bit it back. He managed to smile and chuckled softly,

"Thank you, Steven."