Harry ducked behind another crate to avoid the oncoming guards and internally sighed. He hated stealth missions like these, it was so much easier to just go in guns blazing, but they needed to keep a low profile. Eggsy was in another part of the building, probably working his way in just as slowly.
Patience was important, and Harry was usually better at missions like these, but he was anxious. Not that he would ever admit that.
Merlin just had to go and get his pretty ass kidnapped, didn't he? Bugger.
The guards passed and the window for moving forward finally came. The person on his earpiece filling in for Merlin told him to take a right and hide in a broom closet until the guards on that set path passed by.
The place they were in was littered with guards, and he and Eggsy were both tasked with the same mission. Find out who they were dealing with, and rescue Merlin. Easy enough, if they could only find him.
Harry kept his breathing shallow as three guards passed the door to the closet, talking amongst themselves about some mundane subject. Harry waited until their voices faded as they turned a corner and left the cramped space, trekking down the hall once more.
"Find anything yet?" Eggsy's voice whispered.
Harry peeked down another hallway as he answered, "No."
"I think I overheard some guards talking about Merlin. They said something about a prisoner in the East Wing," Eggsy said back. "Got anything, techie?"
The person filling in for Merlin sounded like they sputtered at the nickname, but furious typing was heard on the end.
"There is an East Wing, Harry is the closest to it. I'll direct you there," he said.
Footsteps sounded down the hall, and in an attempt to hide, Harry quickly turned into a room. It was a room full of junk. Harry spotted a large cardboard box and crouched on the ground, covering himself with it.
Seconds later two men stepped into the room.
They stood quiet, looking around for a moment before one spoke.
"I told you, there's nothing here," the larger one said.
The other replied, "I swear I saw this door open up." After another once over, they left and Harry relaxed, throwing the box off himself.
"Which way do I go?"
.
After waiting behind more corners and going through rooms and down long hallways, he finally reached a locked door. There was no window to look inside, and the electronic lock looked very high security. Harry held up his watch to hack into it, and it thankfully worked.
Not that he doubted Merlin's tech.
He cracked the door open to check for people inside. The room was vacant, and very large. There was a table with a large amount of electronic equipment on it and a chamber on the back wall. The most noteworthy objects in the room was two silver legs with a pair of glasses on top, undoubtedly Merlin's.
A weak cough caught Harry's attention next. It echoed off the walls of the empty room, resonating from within the chamber. The room was devoid of life apart from whoever was in there, and Harry had a pretty good guess as to who it was.
He picked up Marlin's things and peered into the chamber. It was a perfect cylinder with one occupant inside. Merlin lay on the floor, wrists chained to the wall and terribly beaten up.
Harry let air through his teeth when his eyes fell upon his friend and stood stiff as a board. A seed of worry planted in the pit of his stomach. They had really done a number on him.
His skin looked blacker than its usual tan color and red cuts were scattered across his body, oozing blood and puss. There were very noticeable bags under Merlin's eyes and a ring of gray around each one. Trails of blood were located on the side of his face and underneath his shirt, only visible by the dark red stains. His lip was busted and bleeding as well.
"Are you just gonna stand there all bloody day?" Merlin choked. A solemn smile stretched across Harry's face.
"I thought you had slipped back into unconsciousness by the time I got to you," Harry bent down next to his friend and put his glasses on for him. Merlin squinted and he tried to rub his eyes, but the chains held his hands back. He groaned and threw his head back against the wall.
Harry grabbed one of Merlin's wrists and inspected the metal cuff. Just his luck, it was electronic. His watch unlocked the mechanism just as easily as it had done the door lock.
"Do you need help with these?" Harry gestured to the prosthetic legs on the ground.
Merlin stared at the objects with disdain, clearly not thrilled with the idea of walking.
"Roll up my pant legs for me," He asked, and Harry did that for him, moving the prosthetics closer once he had done so.
What was left of Merlin's real legs was a sight to behold. They were raw and bleeding profusely, large gashes carved into them. Merlin hissed in pain as he motioned to Harry.
"Give me the left one first," and as Harry looked over to the metal legs, Merlin grabbed his arm and added, "And if you mix the right one with the left one I will personally beat you over the head with both."
Some of Harry's worry wore away after Merlin's comment. If he still had his bitter charm about him, maybe he was doing better than he looked.
Harry doubled checked that he had grabbed the left leg and handed it to Merlin, who hooked it on as carefully as he could. He grit his teeth and blood pooled and dripped down the prosthetic, but he clicked it in place.
Harry helped him to his one foot, leaning him against the wall as he handed over the second leg. Merlin put that one on quicker, looking to get the pain out of the way as quickly as possible.
Now standing back on both feet, Merlin pulled his pant legs back down and fought back a cry of pain in the back of his throat.
"Will you be alright?" Harry asked, handing a gun to Merlin.
"I'll manage," Merlin croaked. He looked past Harry towards the computer back in the larger room and rubbed his eyes.
"Is that Eggsy?"
Harry furrowed his brow in confusion, then widened his eyes in realization. He turned and tried to pull his gun at the person standing at the computer behind him.
The gun fired only moments too late as a large steel panel shut both men in, turning the room to pitch black.
"Shit," Harry cursed, then held one hand to his ear. "Eggsy? Are you there? I've been compromised, they know I'm here. I'm locked in a room with Merlin."
No reply.
Merlin sighed and slid his back on the wall back down to the floor.
"Don't even try. This room blocks all signals; trust me, I tried. That's probably why it took so long for you to find me, they kept my bloody glasses on me until I upset one of them enough to get them taken away. That's how you found me, right? Through my tracker?"
Harry swore again and tried the door, fumbling through the dark. "That's correct, although I really am starting to wish it weren't," Harry grunted as he tried to pull the door open. He put his watch against it, hoping to hack the mechanism that allowed it to remotely shut. He slid the watch across the face of the door back and forth, but nothing happened.
A voice on the other side spoke up, and another voice answered it.
"Someone broke in and tried to free the prisoner, what should we do?"
"Kill them both. We have no use for him anymore, and we definitely don't need trouble from the other one. Activate the kill switch."
"Yes sir."
A tapping sound followed and ended, plunging the room into quiet as Harry heard the door to the room close. Harry and Merlin stood still, only the sound of their heavy breathing filling the space until a sharp gasp from Merlin ended the silence.
"What the hell-?" Merlin got to his feet and backed into Harry.
"What's gotten into you?" Harry asked, until he felt it. A steady stream pouring down from somewhere near the top of the cylinder. The room was filling with water.
Harry began to panic. Eggy would likely notice his silence and come to the East Wing to find him, but it would be too late by then, he and Merlin would be bloated corpses.
"Merlin, is there any other way out?" Harry asked.
Merlin shook his head at first before realizing it was pitch black and Harry couldn't see him. "No, but I have an idea. Let me see your watch," he said, reaching out and touching Harry.
"I already tried it on the door and it didn't work, what are you going to do?" Harry asked, unstrapping the watch from his wrist and handing it over.
"I'm going to adjust it and try to hack the water system, so once the water stops running the door will open," He answered.
"Seems like a big risk to me, if it doesn't work, we won't have any time for a new plan," Harry said, trying to break down the door once again.
"Well then, it's a good thing we only have one plan," Merlin said, and put the watch on his wrist, fiddling with it for a moment or two. "Though waiting for this thing to fill up is going to be the worst part."
The pair remained silent, listening to the water as it rose up to their hips.
"Thank you for coming for me, by the way," Merlin said.
Harry chuckled in return, "What, did you expect me to forget about you? I could never leave my favorite genius behind."
Merlin let out a stiff laugh that turned into a miserable cough. "You might have to now, I'm not so sure I'll make it out of this one."
Harry held Merlin's shoulder and wrapped his arm around him to hold him up.
"Don't say shit like that, Merlin. I'm not leaving you behind, I'm going to get you back, and we'll get to banter and make dumb jokes in the infirmary while you eat shitty jello," Harry joked, feeling the water come up to his chest.
Merlin didn't respond to Harry's joke and Harry shook him to get his attention.
"Come on, stay with me, I need you to get us out of this mess," he said.
"You don't need me for this, I've already calibrated the watch, you just have to press it next to the faucet or whatever the hell is shooting out water and it should work," Merlin slurred. He wasn't doing well, and he was becoming limp in Harry's arms.
"Well, I need you for emotional support, then" Harry said. That got a laugh out of Merlin.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, big head. I'm your friend just as much as you're mine, don't even pretend," Harry chuckled. The smile dropped from his lips when a thought came to his mind.
"Merlin?"
"Hmm?"
"When we get out of this water silo, I'd better not see any of that self-sacrificing bullshit you pulled before," Harry tapped on Merlin's legs, even though Merlin wouldn't feel the touch of his hand.
"I don't want to have to feel like I lost you again, that was awful. And I really don't want to drag even less of you back," Merlin was silent as Harry spoke.
There was a tense pause between the two before Merlin answered.
"The same to you."
They were floating in the water now, and Merlin was regretting his choice of leaving his legs on, and for designing them the way they were. His next model would be much lighter than this, that is, if he made it out of here.
"Harry-" Merlin started, slowly sinking under the water, kicking his way back to the surface. The act of kicking his legs made his thighs ache, the gashes still raw and burning with pain.
"I have to take my legs back off, they're-" Merlin sunk back under the water again only to be pulled back up by Harry.
"Help me pull them off," Merlin bent his knees and fumbled for the latch, trying to look through the dark water.
"What am I looking for?" Harry asked, reaching for Merlin's other leg.
"There's two latches on each leg, one on each side," He explained, stopping to spit water out of his mouth.
He found one of the latches on his and pulled it, quickly finding the other and doing the same. Harry caught on with the directions and pulled the other off. The pain Merlin felt in his legs was numbing, but he didn't take that as a good sign.
He could hear the water source getting closer, and tested how far away it was by reaching his hand above him and slapping the watch against the surface.
The water immediately cut off. They had a lucky break it seemed, as the door below them opened up and the water poured out onto the floor.
Merlin saw his prosthetics get pulled away near the table as the water current slid him and Harry outside the room, and Harry was fast to grab them again and help Merlin once again put them on.
Eggsy's voice was back as well, but not through the earpiece.
"Whoa, what happened in here?" Eggsy was at the door, confused as he glanced around the room that now had a shallow pool of water, and his eyes settled on the two soaking men in the center.
"Good to see you, Eggsy," Merlin said.
"How's he doing?" Eggsy asked Harry as he jogged over just in time for Merlin to pull himself up to his feet.
"Not well," Harry said. "But better now that we didn't drown, I suppose." To be honest he was shocked to see Eggsy had gotten to them already. Perhaps he had miscalculated how much time they had in there.
"How did you get here so fast?" He asked.
Eggsy smiled sheepishly. "Well, once you went offline and I couldn't reach you, I thought, to hell with it, and took down as many as I could while trying to get here."
Ah. That made more sense.
A sudden alarm sounded throughout the facility, and Eggsy said, "That must be them finding all the bodies."
Harry grabbed both of them by the arms and took off, umbrella out.
Hell, Eggsy was right. Even if they didn't get the information they needed, it was rather fun to shoot down all these people alongside his team.
He'd just have to be careful that none of them got hurt.
I have a confession. I've never actually seen a full Kingsman movie. I only watched most of the end of the second movie while on an airplane ride, so if the characters seem off, then that's why. I just really liked what little I did see, and I wanted to write something after Golden Circle, assuming Merlin lives and just gets some cool prosthetics.