"Fuck!" Matt cursed as he kicked a small rock down the sidewalk. He, Glenn and Tom had been searching for Jeff for hours and were having no luck in finding him. They had called the others to see if they had had any luck but they hadn't either. He was really really starting to get worried. He knew Jeff had a history of running off before but this time felt different. In his heart he knew that this time was different. With everything that was going on, something bad had to have happened. It was driving him crazy just thinking about it. He had to find him. Now. He had to find him now he couldn't take this not knowing anymore. "This is pointless."

"I hate to agree with you right now but I think so too," Glenn said with a sigh. He was checking his phone yet again, seeing if the others or Jeff himself had sent him a text. "We gotta assume he's been taken."

Tom shook his head and ran a hand over his face. "Remember when we didn't have to assume that?"

"Faintly," Glenn replied dryly.

"Remember when we had normal lives?"

"Not in the slightest."

Matt ignored the banter and looked up and down the street. Besides from them there was only a single car coming down towards them...a cop car. Fuck. That was the last thing they needed. They were out after curfew this was gonna be trouble they didn't need. "Come on," he said, turning on his heel and trying to push Glenn and Tom towards the nearest set of bushes so they could hide behind them. "Come on come on come on-"

"Wha-shit!" Tom saw the cop car coming and dived behind the bushes. Matt got there right next to him but Glenn wasn't so lucky. He tripped over his own two feet and barely managed to get his hands out so that he wouldn't hit his face when he fell to the ground.

"Fuuuuuuck..."

"When the FUCK did you get so clumsy?" Matt hissed in disbelief. He saw the cop car pulling right up to where Glenn was getting up and groaned under his breath. They were caught.

"I saw you guys to begin with. You didn't have to try to ninja your way away."

Matt and Tom exchanged looks before standing up and facing John Cena of all people, who was leaning out his window to look at them. "What are you doing out here?" Matt asked. Dumb question (as evidenced by the looks Tom and Glenn gave him) but it was all he could come up with at the moment.

"My job," John replied. "What are YOU guys doing out here?"

Matt, Glen and Tom exchanged looks. Despite their usual distrust of authority, Matt found himself opening his mouth to give an honest answer. Honestly, at this point, they were fucked no matter which way they turned so he just wanted more people on their side in the looking of Jeff. He didn't care who found out they were the Saints at this point. He wanted his brother back alive and in one piece. "Jeff's missing." He winced as Tom kicked his leg but that didn't stop him in the slightest. "We're trying to find him."

The color drained from John's face at those words. "He's missing?"

Glenn nodded along with Matt. Too late to hide it now.

"How long now?"

"Few hours..."

"And you didn't CALL anyone?" John's voice spiked in disbelief.

"We thought we'd find him..." Tom said in their defense.

John just shook his head. "Just get in. I'll help."

Glenn and Tom hesitated but Matt just went right into the passenger's seat. He really really didn't care at this point. If it was gonna help him get Jeff back then he was more than for it. If the others didn't like it, they could just kiss his ass.

...

"Is Jeff dead?" Connor asked. He and Cooper were still at the house waiting for the possibility of Jeff's return, which had shrunk down to nothing at this point. Connor was eating popcorn and watching cartoons while Cooper placed around the house, trying to occupy his time by texting Randy. Dealing with Connor was also time consuming though it was never really fun to do. A pain in the ass was more like it.

"No." He had no idea if that was true or not but he didn't know what else to tell Connor until he actually knew otherwise.

"How do you know?" Of course Connor had to ask that. Couldn't just let it go and not be difficult.

"Because I do."

"That's dumb. You don't know that."

"I'm not fighting with you," Cooper said irritably. "Just eat your popcorn."

"But-"

"Just EAT damn it!" Cooper shook his head and headed out of the room and into the kitchen. He needed to just get away from Connor for a bit. He loved his brother to death but he was just too much sometimes.

"Coopy!"

Ugh. Speak of the devil. "NO Connor!"

"But Coopy!"

"God DAMN it!" Cooper stormed back into the living room, fully intending to just wallop Connor upside the head when he saw that the TV had been hijacked once again. Connor's cartoons had disappeared and had been replaced by the image of the Nexus standing in front of the ruins of city hall. Wade Barrett was in the lead and in the middle of all of them, being held by the biggest dudes of the group, was a battered and bruised Jeff. "Oh my god..."

"Jeff!" Connor dropped his popcorn, letting it just spill on the floor. Snoopy bounded over to eat it though neither one of them hardly noticed.

"For years, this city has been ruled not by the law, but by vigilantes." Wade's voice was booming, his eyes glinting as he stared into the camera. "Vigilantes that have cleaned up your streets and while you claim you want to bring them to justice, this is all but a fallacy. Every single one of you have been content to let them clean up your streets so that you can all sleep nice and sound in your beds." He smirked. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have managed to do what your law enforcement has always failed to do." He turned back and took Jeff into his own grasp, holding him by the throat and putting a gun to his head. Not that it was really needed. Jeff had been beaten so badly that he could barely stand on his own two feet. "This lad here is Jeff Hardy. He wasn't very eager to tell us that but as you can see-" he gripped Jeff's face roughly with one hand and showed off the damage they had done there "we had useful methods of persuation."

"Bastards," Cooper muttered under his breath.

"He hasn't given up the rest of the Saint members though," Wade went on, his face hardening. "But that's alright...because I have a new plan." His grip went back to Jeff's throat and Jeff whimpered loudly. "If the rest of the Saints aren't here within the next half hour, we have our first ever live dismemberment-"

"Come on." Cooper grabbed Connor by the back of the neck while dialing Mark with his other hand.

"Where are we going? Are we gonna save Jeff?"

"No, we're going to the circus. Of COURSE we're gonna save Jeff you idiot!"

"Mean! I'm telling Daddy!"

"Go ahead-if we don't all die that is."