Arthur's head felt like it was going to explode. He reached up to rub it with his hand. It didn't particularly help, and after a while it started to make it worse. There was a dull throbbing deep in his head, making it feel like his brain had become just a little too big for his skull. Slowly Arthur opened his eyes.

"What the fuck?" he asked under his breath, closing his eyes again as the lights made him flinch. There was a clanking of metal and Arthur didn't pay much attention. One hand automatically went down to the pocket of his hoodie, the one that usually held his money. He didn't need to open it to realise it was empty.

Arthur sat up abruptly, rubbing his eyes, wincing as something rattled close to his head. He looked down at his hands and the cuffs locked on his wrists.

"Shit!" he hissed, pulling at them, one wrist and then the other. "What the fuck?"

Kneeling up he looked around, following the line of the chains on the floor. There was a good two metres of chain running from each handcuff, meeting at a point on the floor. Arthur yanked on the chains again, looking at the point they were secured into the concrete. They were held down by a heavy duty bolt. Arthur grabbed the secured lengths of chain in his right hand and yanked, trying to shift the bolt. It refused to give. Arthur added his other hand, and he slammed his foot against the bolt. He tried to loosen it, but it wasn't about to give easily.

"That's not going to work," a voice told him helpfully.

Arthur swung round, landing heavily on his backside as he off balanced. He glared at the boy stood close by. He was tall and lean, with a mop of dark hair and he smiled as he realised he had Arthur attention.

"Sorry about that, but we need to keep you within the circle here," Merlin pointed at the designs on the floor. "I'm Merlin, by the way."

Arthur just glowered and yanked on the cuffs again, struggling to pull his hands out of the restraints. It did nothing more than make his wrists and hands ache, so he stopped for a moment, flexing his fingers.

"He's woken up, is he all right?"

Arthur glared at Leon. "Where's my money?"

"I think you'll find it's mine."

"Not all of it, and I think I damn well earned what you gave me, you fucking weirdo. What the hell is going on?"

"You just have to stay there for a while. There are others that will know you are with us."

"Good, hopefully they can get me out of here, and you can be locked up, like you deserve. And I want my money back, you can keep your own, I want mine, you didn't bloody earn it, and you are not thieving it off me!"

"What is going on?" a new voice demanded.

"He's awake, Sir," Leon said.

"I can see that," Uther said, looking around and locking his eyes on Arthur's. Arthur carried on trying to yank himself free.

"You are in so much trouble, you can't go kidnapping people off the street! And I don't know what you are smirking at you thief! That was my money!"

Leon's face straightened up. Merlin turned and walked over to him and held out his hand.

"Give me the money."

"You don't seriously think that I stole it!"

"You searched him and were ordered to remove everything from his pockets," Merlin said. "Which you did, what else did you find?"

"He had a knife in his back pocket."

"Shame I didn't get a chance to use it!" Arthur yelled at him. He pulled so hard that he lost his balance, falling over and yanking his wrists again. Rolling over he went onto his hands and knees and glared around, staring at the floor as he looked at the designs drawn on the concrete around him.

"Give me the money," Merlin ordered Leon. Arthur watched Leon glance at Uther, who nodded. Leon did as he was told and Merlin walked over to Arthur, pausing a safe distance away and holding out his hand, with the neatly rolled up notes. Arthur leant forward. Merlin stretched over, Arthur couldn't quite reach due to the handcuffs and Merlin moved the money into Arthur's range. He snatched it out of his fingers and shuffled back a little, secreting the cash back in his pocket, pushing the notes about as he counted it.

"Sorry about that," Merlin said. Arthur looked up at him.

"Yeah, I've been kidnapped and drugged by a group of weirdoes but at least I can pay my rent," Arthur snapped. "Whet the hell do you want? You can't keep me here."

"Yes, we can," Uther said. "No one knows where you are."

"Don't walk on that!" Merlin shouted as Uther prepared to step forward. He backed off away from the edge of the markings on the floor. "Sorry, just don't walk on it, leave it alone."

"Is he safe in there Merlin?"

"Perfectly, but don't walk on it. I can do it but no one else," Merlin said. He turned back to Arthur. "There's some food there for you, you might be there a little while so if you need anything then you can just ask."

"I need to get the hell away from you lot, you assholes! You can't do this, and if you think I am eating this shit then you are dumber than you look!"

Arthur lashed out, kicking the plate of sandwiches away from him. He sent it spinning off across the thickly painted designs on the floor and he started yelling, hurling abuse, swearing and snarling at them all, picking out the worst things he could say. None of them moved. Merlin, stood closest, eyed him with childlike wonder, smirking every now and again at something he said. Arthur had heard it all, years on the street meant he had the talent to swear like a navvy. He was really getting into the swing of it when a strange whirring sound stopped him.

The plate he had kicked was spinning on the floor, rolling round and round, the angle of the spin lay low on the floor, almost as if it was about to stop. Except it didn't stop, in fact, Arthur watched with wide eyes as it did the opposite. It slowly rolled itself upwards, spinning faster and faster until it suddenly lurched up onto its side, resting on one thin end. Then very slowly it toppled over and disappeared between two lines of the drawing on the floor. Arthur watched it disappear, and his eyes were not deceiving him, it did literally just topple over and vanish into the concrete.

"Oh my god!" Arthur said, sitting back abruptly, eyes fixed on the spot where the plate had disappeared. Beyond it particles of the sandwiches lay, some vanishing into the ground, others rolling, some just laying there. Arthur felt his lower lip wobble and then clamped his jaw shut. It sent a pain up through his jaw, searing up over his cheekbone. He needed to get a tooth seen to, but he just couldn't afford it. If he clenched his jaw too hard, it hurt, so he avoided doing so. Now he did it on purpose, sending the shooting pain across his face, so he almost made his left eye water.

"Merlin?" Uther asked.

"That's why I said not to walk on it, the energy of the spell can draw things in. I'm safe."

"What about Arthur?"

Arthur frowned, glaring at Uther and then at Merlin.

"We need to keep him in there, we have to keep him cuffed."

"Yeah, well, 'him' can hear you and you are not getting away with this!" Arthur snapped. "You sick bastards! I don't know what you want but I am not playing your sick little game here. Let me go!"

"I'm afraid we can't," Merlin said, looking apologetic again. He watched as Arthur yanked on the chains again and Merlin murmured a word. The chains flashed and Arthur looked at them, tugging again. Merlin said. "You'll not get yourself free."

Arthur looked up and started hurling abuse. Merlin backed up in shock, eyes wide as he listened to the words out of Arthur's mouth. The two men on the edge of the drawings listened too and in the end Gwaine said.

"Are you done Merlin?"

"The spell is in place, but maybe I should…"

"Just come on, leave him alone," Gwaine said. He looked to Uther for confirmation. Uther nodded and Merlin started to back up.

Arthur yelled at them as they went to the door. He carried on shouting abuse but they ceased to pay any attention to him. Instead they opened the big metal door, rolling it back on its runners and then they closed it behind them. A second later Arthur was plunged into darkness.

"Hey! You can't leave me! You bastards!"

Then he fell silent, stood in the darkness. He looked around. There wasn't even the smallest sliver of light sneaking in from anywhere. Arthur scanned around, but there was nothing. Very slowly he sat down, using the chains to follow the line to where they were bolted down. He pulled at them again, trying to work it free, but he stayed quiet, feeling very small in the dark.

"What do you know, like a parrot, put him in the dark and he shuts up," Gwaine drawled from the other side of the door.

"Shut up Gwaine, what do you expect?" Merlin said. "I never knew that many swear words existed."

"Is he safe within the spell?" Uther said.

"Yes," Merlin replied. "It's not going to be easy though, is it?"

They turned and made their way up a set of metal stairs into a room that overlooked the main area of the warehouse. Morgana was typing on the computer, and on one screen was a night vision view of the warehouse. Arthur was now sat on the floor, curled up quietly, his head still moving around, trying to pick up noises and movement around him.

"Any sign of hostiles?" Uther asked her.

"None, we seem to have plucked him out of thin air and no one else is any the wiser. The DNA is confirmed, the test just finished. He is your Arthur. Perfect match between you and Igraine."

"They could have picked him off at any time, if they had found him."

"None of them did," Morgana said. "He seems fine, his heart rate is reading above normal, and his adrenaline but that could be expected all things considered. He is in a stressful scenario and has no idea what is going on. It's nothing beyond a normal reaction, we can monitor it," she said tapping away on her keyboard, glancing at the screens in front of her.

"Keep a look out on the perimeter. We are bound to get a few circulating," Uther said.

"I'm not sure we will," Morgana said. "This is the last place we expected to track him to. He has been well hidden in plain sight for nearly twenty years, yet no one has had so much of the merest hint of his location."

"Who would think to look for Uther Pendragon's son on the streets?" Gwaine asked.

"I didn't, until now," Uther said.

"Let's not judge just yet," Merlin said. "We don't know what's happened to him, and for heavens sake, give him some light."

Arthur jumped at the darkness suddenly changed. The lights hanging over the door blinked on, illuminating a small space by the door. Arthur watched and waited but no one came through. He looked around again. There were no more lights, and nothing from the darkness behind him.

"Hey! You can't leave me here!" he yelled. But the people that had done this thought they could, as he got no response. He knew there were enough strange people on the streets, and he knew what could happen. There was something everyday that he could see, evidence of his life being dragged down into a pit that he couldn't get out of.

It was just one of those weird cults. They were getting more and more popular as time went on. He met people on the streets trying to make things better, encouraging the people working there to get jobs and make themselves better. They made it sound so damn simple, and it wasn't. Arthur could hardly prove he existed, never mind proving he was employable.

This could only be what this was, one of those shock places that drag you off the street and try to make you more presentable. Arthur consoled himself with that thought; he wrapped it up inside and held onto it tightly. It didn't stop the fluttering in the pit of his stomach, the feeling that refused to remove itself. Nothing would console that. Arthur wedged his foot against the bolt again, and wrapping the chains around his hands pulled again. For a moment he was sure he felt something give.

He yelped as his foot slipped, sliding over the top of the bolt and he lost balance, slamming onto the floor, bruising his shoulder and scraping his leg and arm as he landed. Arthur lay there winded, sitting up again and looking around. He stared at the drawings on the floor, looking around. He was in the centre of them, in a perfect circle. As he turned he tried not to notice the lights flashing on the floor, running through the pattern. And he didn't want to think about the plate that had vanished through the floor.

That was another thing where rumours were starting to develop. Weird things were happening. Arthur read the sensationalist papers. They weren't real life. Why the hell did he want to read about that? For the last few years there had been all sorts of stories. People disappearing, desiccated corpses turning up and even, Arthur thought this one to be the best, two ramblers had apparently encountered giant scorpions in the woods. It was all so funny, and yet, Arthur found it oddly believable. There had to be something more to life, than what he found it to be.

"Hey! This isn't funny anymore!" Arthur yelled. "Probably wasn't funny in the first place," he muttered to himself.

There was no response, just the sound of his own breathing and the stillness around him.

"Look, I don't know what you want but…" Arthur paused, he didn't have an end to that. Instead he sat down his mind trying to process what was going on. His heart was still pounding and his stomach churning. He hadn't had anything to eat all day. The only thing he had had was the alcohol Sophia gave him and the vodka and coke he had drunk before Leon attacked him.

Very privately he wished he hadn't kicked the sandwich across the floor. He was hungry, so much so that he might have taken the risk of whatever was in it just to have something to eat. With the rent threatening food had become a secondary concern.

"Just one thing, one more thing!" Arthur yelled out into the air. "What do I do if I need the bathroom?"