The group convened in the room above the warehouse. It consisted of three rooms; one large area which was presumably the main office, when the abattoir had been in operation, there was a side room, which Morgana guessed was a manager's office and the room tucked up one corner, down a short corridor appeared to be an old toilet. After locating the warehouse and setting up Morgana had shut the door that led to the toilet firmly, it was not an attractive place to be.

The side room now housed two makeshift cot beds, covered in sleeping bags. They were using them on a rota basis, so somebody was permanently on duty to mind Arthur, even if he never saw them.

In the main room a small fridge whirred over in one corner and in the centre was an old table that had been left from when the building had been shut down seven years ago. It was not in a good state, one leg had several books propped underneath it, and it had taken her nearly a full hour to clean the top off to make it respectable to work on. Now there were three laptops on it, and she had some folders piled high, next to where she was working on one of the laptops, typing away with great concentration, trying not to notice Uther stood by the windows that looked out onto the main floor. Morgana kept an eye via another laptop, which held the camera feed from the room beyond, keeping constant surveillance on Arthur.

The others came in quietly, looking at the scene. Gwaine went to switch the kettle on and he rummaged around the jars next to it, spooning coffee into mugs. Uther turned his head a fraction and shook it, in a hint he didn't want anything. Gwaine made something for the rest of them while Morgana finished typing and she lowered the screen of the laptop.

"Is he all right?" Merlin asked, peering through the windows, but staying a short distance away from Uther.

"He hasn't moved," Uther said.

No one had been in since Arthur's attempted attack on Merlin. Arthur was lying facing away from the window, resting on his left shoulder as the right was too sore to take any pressure. He was cradling it, keeping very still, and refusing any temptation to turn and glance at the windows behind him.

"Are you sure he'll he all right?" Uther asked again.

"I think so," Merlin said backing up and sitting down. Gwaine placed a coffee in front of him. "I'm sorry Uther, I hit him really hard, but he just surprised me."

"It was not your fault Merlin," Gwaine said, taking the seat next to him.

"I don't think it was Arthur's either, really," Merlin said. "Sorry," he added again to Uther as he came to sit at the table.

"Are you sure there won't be any lasting damage, physically?"

"I don't think so."

"I've taken one of those hits from Merlin, he'll be sore but fine," Gwaine said.

"You're stronger than Arthur is," Morgana said fiddling about with her paperwork. She placed one of the folders in front of her, it was bursting with paper. "And why the hell would he trust us? We've kidnapped him and are keeping him chained up; and making fun of him probably isn't helping."

"I wasn't making fun," Gwaine said trying to look innocent.

"What was it Arthur said back to you?" Morgana drawled. "It was a choice between stand up comedy and having sex with strangers for money. Did that not ring a few warning bells for you?"

"No," Gwaine snapped back. Morgana gave him an arched look and decided not to start a row.

"Well, myself and Leon spent our morning productively, we delved a little further into the background, now we know for certain he is Arthur Pendragon. He was never listed as such; a name change was never put on record. I found his mother, she took the name Merrick. Although there wasn't much reference to her immediately after she disappeared. Quite possibly that wasn't the only surname she used, she could have just used different ones wherever she went. She came on record using the name Merrick as far as I can find when Arthur was nearly three. She needed treatment for breast cancer, and she fought the disease for eighteen months. Arthur saw all of it. I spoke to one of the nurses that were there when Igraine had treatment. Arthur just used to sit with her, holding her hand."

"And when she died?" Merlin asked.

Morgana shrugged. "She had no one and presumably she never tried to find Uther."

"You don't know that," Gwaine said.

"If she had asked for someone to look for Uther Pendragon, don't you think we would have picked it up? We were searching for any trace of him, she must have known that the slightest lead would have been tracked by us," Leon said.

"Why didn't she?" Merlin said. "You were the best person to look after Arthur surely."

"She clearly didn't think like that," Uther said. "She ran, and didn't want to come back."

"So what happened to Arthur?"

"Foster care, a children's home for a long while. Nothing very sinister about it, he seemed quite happy, went to school and was doing well. Again I located one of the people that used to run it, Leon went to see her."

Morgana waved her hand and passed over to the man next to her, just for a minute or so. Leon started talking.

"She remembered Arthur, he was happy, nothing wrong with him. He had to move when he was almost fourteen. There were funding problems and they felt obliged to concentrate on the younger children, they needed the stability. Arthur was moved to another home, it was a facility for kids that had been in trouble and it was meant to be a short term measure until foster care could be arranged."

"So?" Uther asked.

"Then it started," Morgana said. "He got into trouble attacking one of the carers, who did it seemed, have a reputation for going into the rooms at night. Nothing was proven but Arthur marked himself a place in the facility, until he turned fifteen. Then he was left to fend for himself. The story explains itself from there."

"Really? What have you got here? Shoplifting convictions?" Gwaine read off one of the sheets from Morgana's pile.

"Always practical stuff, I noted," Morgana said. "Food mainly, medical supplies now and again, and these were the ones where he was caught. Chances are there were others. His first soliciting offence was just after he turned sixteen. Minor things followed, same pattern, just picked up for stealing, or soliciting, a few times it was just a caution. He had a place to live, a pimp who offered him some protection. He had two occasions back in the facility. He's never come on the radar as an adult, nothing more than a caution since he was eighteen, but the people that work as his pimp really don't want him off the streets. They have paid the last few fines. He's been surviving."

"A fully functioning member of society," Gwaine drawled.

"There wasn't much else he could do. He blotted his copybook at the facility. From what I can gather from the very sketchy incident reports, he was protecting another of the boys. The confrontation turned nasty. The officials had too much power and Arthur just got pegged as aggressive. It also meant they wouldn't re-home him anywhere else. I think he just got out of there as soon as he could."

"It certainly doesn't seem like an ideal scenario," Leon said.

"And all things considered, reading between the lines of the report, Arthur was probably sexually abused while he was there. Which more than likely led onto him working the streets. Finding it funny now Gwaine?"

He scowled at Morgana. "I never said I found it funny."

"You seemed to like winding him up," Morgana snarled.

"Gwaine!" Merlin's voice cut across the brewing argument. Gwaine looked at him in surprise. "Don't be an ass!"

For a moment Gwaine looked furious, but he only did that looking at Morgana, his expression changed as he faced Merlin. He looked a little sheepish instead.

"Sorry, but he hurt you."

"He didn't hurt me," Merlin said. "I hurt him, and all this happened before that."

"He was seconds from getting that chain around your neck."

"It wasn't to hurt me, it was to have something to bargain with," Merlin said. "And he didn't, I'm fine."

"Well, you do not go near him again, without me there and he stays the hell away from you."

"I think he's learnt that lesson," Merlin said. Gwaine didn't respond, hearing the concern in Merlin's voice. It had been a shock reaction on his part, when Arthur had grabbed him, and he hadn't meant to do what he did. It had just been reflex, and he had done so at close quarters. Arthur would be in pain and he had nothing to help with that.

"Can we just please get back to the matter in hand?" Uther demanded. "My son. Did you find anything else?"

"There was this," Morgana said, her tone changing a little. "I took copies of the news clippings, as well as trying to get into the police database. Not an easy thing but the incidents were well publicised."

"Oh my God," Merlin gasped, pulling one of the sheets closer.

"The newspapers take on it are sensationalist but that can be expected," Morgana said. "It occurred the spring time when Arthur was almost eighteen, so just over a year ago about… 14 months," Morgana said. "Arthur was the third victim, and the first male. The first incident was written off as a one off, guys in a van grab a prostitute, drive off with her, beat her up and rape her, dump her back when they found her. The second time, two weeks on, made it newsworthy. Older woman, but the same thing, and again a prostitute.

"Then, a week later, they grabbed Arthur, from the reports I have found, including his own, he was walking along the road just before the main area of the district, not far from where we found him. Same thing, drove up at speed, two men jumped out and dragged him into the van and made off. They had their faces covered."

"Shit!" Gwaine said, with some sympathy, reading over Merlin's shoulder. Morgana got out the police information she had managed to lift. It wasn't much. They all paused at the sound of paper being crumpled and tearing. Uther had several sheets in his hands, his fists clenching around them while he stared down at what he was doing, as if he could try and erase it by that action alone.

"I can stop," Morgana said. Uther shook his head.

"Just tell me."

"They drove off, parked up somewhere but Arthur's statement says he wasn't sure where. His injuries were severe, but not just defensive, he tried to fight back. Indications were that he was restrained at some point, presumably to keep him under control, something that hadn't occurred with the two women previously. Then once they were done he was dumped back, almost where they found him. He was found by a prostitute by the name of 'Sophia', presumably not her real name. She didn't even know Arthur's, always just called him 'pretty boy'."

"I saw her," Leon said, pulling the picture closer. It was a pathetic printout but he had seen her. "She was with him, she came towards the car before Arthur. I guess they used the same spot, when Gwaine drove on she backed up, Arthur came forward."

"What happened after that?" Uther asked.

"Again it made the news, but the fourth one really hit. The girl that was snatched later died of her injuries. That was when the media storm really started. The names of the victims were protected, but the police, couldn't find the van, which seemed to change slightly every time, or the men in question."

"After that?" Gwaine asked.

"They were caught on the seventh occasion. The boy was in the van, but they couldn't link it to any of the other incidents, not completely, there was no forensic evidence of indicate the others had been in the van," Morgana said. "And the defence said the previous victims did not make for reliable witnesses; their word against nice, well-respected, men, some of them with families. One of them sued a paper that named him for damages and won thousands of pounds, even though it was clear he was guilty as sin."

"Their names are on record?" Uther asked.

"Yes, I have them. Although there is nothing you can achieve by going after them. They got away with murder in the end, but they all live rather lonely lives, even the one that is still with his wife. I pretended I was someone trying to set up an Avon franchise in the area. She can't stand her husband, she is punishing him by staying there. Talked about it and hinted at it."

"That doesn't help Arthur."

"No, it doesn't, but getting distracted with them will do nothing. There is no way he is going to trust any of us. He probably doesn't trust anyone in his life. If he's been though that then he's just waiting for the hammer to fall. There is nothing we can do. Not immediately anyway."

"We can't leave him down there, how long until the spell completes?" Uther demanded.

"The camouflage is there, but the defences are not, none of it will be entirely reliable," Merlin said.

"Can we take him out of there?" Uther said.

Merlin nodded. "I can take down the spell, I was hoping to build in some defences, but it wouldn't have worked that far. The magic is solid enough that it will muffle his presence, in case anyone is on to us. I've not sensed anything close by but there have been enough instances of the power bleeding through."

"Like ramblers seeing scorpions," Gwaine said. "I expect a few people thought they had probably eaten a few mushrooms on their way through the forest."

"We know different," Morgana said. "And there have been increased reports of griffin sightings over in East Anglia."

"And why they are there, who knows," Gwaine said. Morgana smirked.

"Not sure, but the fabric is breaking down and magic is seeping through," she said.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Merlin said. Morgana smiled at him.

"No, of course not."

"So if we release Arthur, what's the plan? We have a lot of ground to cover to get him home," Leon said.

Uther turned to Morgana. "We've still got the rooms booked at that motel, haven't we?"

"Yes, I paid in cash, we are booked in for two more days."

"Right, we take Arthur there and get him cleaned up, as soon as he is ready we get moving," Uther said.

"He's not going to co-operate," Gwaine warned them. "And I'm keeping Merlin away from him, or at least I'm not leaving him unattended."

"Fair enough," Uther said. Merlin scowled in Gwaine's direction.

"I don't need a nanny," he said.

"No, you need a bodyguard, which is me, so you do as you are told." He reached out a hand and took Merlin's. Merlin looked at him ruefully.

"Okay," he said to Gwaine before turning to Uther. "Maybe we need to talk to him a bit, before we do so. At the moment he knows nothing, except the fact that a group of people have kidnapped him and are keeping him chained up in a magic circle. I don't think it's inclined to inspire trust."

"There is a limit to what we can really tell him," Uther reasoned.

"I think there is one thing we should tell him," Merlin said.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Arthur didn't move at the sound of the door opening up. It hurt too much to shift about. The pain had died a little, and his arm moved fine, but it just throbbed, the muscles aching like he had over worked them, and the nerve tingled like they had pins and needles. He was baffled as to what Merlin had done to him. The boy hadn't even struck him, but his hand had been on Arthur's shoulder, pushing him back as the bolt of pain had lashed into him.

There was no doubt that his eyes had changed colour, as if something had run through him. It was just a momentary flash but Arthur could only assume it was associated with the sudden pain he had felt, and was still feeling. He was in pain, he was tired, and he was frightened. No one had really gone out of their way to harm him. Arthur actually believed that Merlin's reaction had been an accident. They were trying to care for him, he supposed. It just wasn't very inspiring, chained up and just waiting for what they were really planning to do.

Footsteps echoed around the room. There was a click of heels, and the tap of shoes, and some shuffling. Arthur didn't move as he tracked the sounds and Uther walked into his eye line, Morgana followed, along with Leon, walking the other way around the circle. Arthur gave a huff and rolled over, it meant lying on his aching arm but for a moment he didn't care, until he made eye contact with Merlin, then Gwaine, who were waiting on the other side. Arthur flopped onto his back staring up at the ceiling. He rubbed his throbbing right shoulder, rolling it a little, it hadn't appreciated weight being put on it in the slightest.

"What now?" Arthur asked. Merlin shuffled a little nearer, Gwaine's jaw clenched but Merlin gave him a steady look and kept out of Arthur's reach, not that Arthur made any attempt to do anything. He didn't even look, he kept his eyes fixed on the ceiling above him.

"You haven't had anything else to eat," Merlin said, peering at the bag.

"I'm not hungry," Arthur said; a comment which was immediately contradicted by his stomach. Arthur put a hand on it, fist clenching on the material of his hoodie as if that could keep his body under control.

"All you've had for two days is a chocolate bar," Merlin said.

"Two actually, I had the other one."

"You could have eaten the croissants."

"I could have," Arthur said.

"If he doesn't want them I'll have them," Gwaine said.

"Gwaine!" Morgana, Merlin and Leon snapped simultaneously. It made Arthur raise his head a little, looking at a surprised Gwaine, then a worried Merlin, a rather confused Leon, a narrow-eyed Morgana. The last person Arthur glanced at was Uther, who hadn't shouted, his attention was unnervingly fixed on Arthur. Arthur went back to the contemplation of the ceiling.

"Well, I'm sorry but I don't feel very inclined to trust anything you give me. It kind of happens when you kidnap people."

"It was all sealed packets," Gwaine commented.

Arthur rolled his head to glare at Gwaine, and then he turned himself over, pulling his hood up over his head. When he spoke again his voice was muffled, but clear enough.

"Just piss off and leave me alone. Or just do whatever you are going to bloody do to me! I'm fed up with the whole fucking lot of you."

Morgana raised her eyebrows and looked around at the others. Uther was the only one who didn't seem to have reacted. Instead he was just staring at Arthur, eyes fixed on him and jaw set. Eventually he broke the tense silence.

"You're going to have to get very used to us, and moderate your language."

Arthur's head rose slightly. No one could see his face, as he brought his arms around his head to protect himself.

"Oh piss off!" Arthur couldn't help being deliberately crude around them. He supposed he swore a bit more than the average person, but then again he wasn't average. Arthur guessed he was probably a little bit less than that. "What's it got to do with you how I talk? You're not my bloody father!"

He repeated what he had said to Gwaine earlier without even thinking about it. It was just something he had picked up from the detention facility, one of the carers there said it enough, refusing to give much care to any of the boys there.

Uther's face tensed. Morgana had visions of it shattering into pieces if Uther carried on. It was Uther's only reaction, and he let the statement hang for a moment. When he replied, his tone was soft, but it carried around the room.

"As a matter of fact, Arthur Pendragon, that is exactly what I am!"