#lanceval

And that’s the moment he blinks and opens his eyes, the moment all the sensations come back. He can’t move, he is on his tiptoes, his hands tied above him and-

“Oh, hello there. Nice to see you awake, finally” A voice chimes in and it’s muffled until he moves his head and frees his ears. When the pressure vanishes, pain erupts in his shoulderblades. The person doesn’t swim into focus. He doesn’t have his glasses, and his head is… Someone knocked him out, he figures. Hanging like this doesn’t help, but it does something else. Pain turns into anger, fear joins in and he’ll take what energy he can get. His wrists hurt, whatever is holding him cuts into them, just at the point under his thumbs, his palms. They are too tight, but that does not matter, does it? He does not try to move. No point there. He also doesn’t answer the woman, tries to remember her name but only comes up with something starting with a K.

“And here I thought Gentlemen were supposed to have manners, tz!” She gets up and pushes her chair back in the process. He can’t completely make out her features, but she looks strangely familiar.

“But at least you are not wasting our time. We didn’t get the other one to shut up, he just keeps talking ” James. James is not with him. She talks about James, right? She has to talk about him. What is he doing here? Why can’t he remember the mission?

“But, well. Maybe you are taking the situation a little more serious then” She smiles and comes closer, close enough he can finally properly see her. Despite her strict clothes and the heels he hears on the floor, her face is soft. She smiles, even, and looks so young. Only a little older than Roxy. Same color of hair, even. Even her eyes are so soft, who is she? K?

“So. What did you want here? Blow the building up? You can just… nod” She smiles and if he didn’t know better, it’s adorable. He does know better. He doesn’t even know if she really looks that way, he remembers. Hallucinogens. That’s why they’re here. A dangerous drug, he read the file so carefully but that is all he remembers. His head swims. She looks so much like Roxy how-

He looks at her and says nothing, thinking about Roxy makes him think about James too. Does James just not shut up in general? Or did they drug him? Did he tell them - no, then they wouldn’t bother with Percival.

“Shame” she sighs, “Shame. Now I have to get the others involved, while…” she smiles and the noise her hands make while clapping is loud enough to make him flinch, “While I actually enjoy that! I’m Kate, but you know that. And you’re Percival, though I really think that is a strange name” he can’t help but frown, “Oh darling, don’t write your name inside your glasses if you don’t want me to know! Speaking of which…” she pulls them from her pocket and carefully puts them over his nose and ears, “I want you to see this. But I severed the connection to your friends, or maybe they did that themselves? I don’t know. But you are alone, I know that at least. You and your friend, all alone” She pats his cheek and shakes her head, “really hoped you would talk. Now my boyfriend gets all the fun in torture and I can’t touch you, really. And I looked forward to it! I just really really looked forward to it…” He doesn’t move when she inspects his face with her fine and warm fingers, just looks at her trying to put all the hate, all the anger and all his resistance in the stare. Where is James? What have they done to him? Why does she look so much like Roxy? She pets his cheek again and turns around abruptly.

“Dear? Want to bring your new best friend in here? Sadly, Percival doesn’t want to talk!” Someone laughs and a man tells her that they are on their way. Percy tries to think, but whatever he tries, it’s just a loop, he gets stuck at James and that’s terrifying. He gets stuck at ‘need to get to James’, something must be so, so wrong. They’ve been in similar situations before, and he can always keep a level head. He can always work with what he has, but now? He can’t. His thoughts keep wandering away, he can’t-

Oh.

Oh, so that’s it. He can’t concentrate. He can’t focus. Even with his glasses on, he forgot that he got his glasses back. He can’t focus, that’s his problem.

“Oh, pardon me, I forgot!” Kate flips around to face him again, smiling brightly and pushes a button on a device he did not see before. A click, a metallic cracking, and he is falling, his feet touch the floor but only for a moment when he is unable to support himself his knees buckle and he stays up for a short moment before they give in completely and he falls to the cold, hard and wet floor. He doesn’t so much feel it as hear it, lands hard on his shoulder. His hands immediately start to feel like filled with insects, his head swims, his wrists hurt. They never stopped hurting. He hears someone pant and realizes it’s him, tries to hold onto that but slips away again. He still has his glasses. Kate looks like Roxy. He is tired. His wrists bleed. Didn’t he just - oh, no, he fell. Right.

The thick metal door opens and someone in a yellow suit gets pushed inside, lands on his knees next to him. James. He grins, but there is blood on his teeth and Percy can’t focus.

“Thank you so much , Simon!” James exclaims too loudly, “I really needed that shove for my knees, you see, got shot in one once and-” he gets a fist in the stomach that knocks the air out of him enough to send him down too. He looks over to Percy, his eyes clear and bright and panicking. Why-

Oh, he knows why. Because Percy can barely keep his eyes open.

“Percival, fancy running into you here!”

“I’ll leave you two here for some time, hm?” Kate laughs, and the door falls shut. Are they gone? No, even if, that doesn’t help.

“Percival?” He looks at James and doesn’t answer, “Percival, talk to me” Why does just everyone want him to talk?! He closes his eyes to muster up the strength to properly answer, but then they are closed and he doesn’t really want to open them again.

“Percy, come on”

No, he most definitely does not, he decides.

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