FIVE.
WATER WE GOING TO DO

When she leaned her shoulder against the door, throwing her weight forward to open it, Bex heard the sound of a seal making a hissing noise as she broke it. The hulking door swung open, and she tumbled inside, tripping over the laces of her shoe. Bex only had a moment for her cheeks to flame in embarrassment as nine pairs of eyes swiveled to face her before the door swung back into place.

It locked into place with a firm thud. Bex looked back at it uneasily, wondering why the door needed a seal. She couldn't help but feel as though someone had just locked her into a cell, trapping her. She tried the handle. It didn't budge. Bex was stuck in here, whatever this place was.

She slowly turned, her eyes taking in the room. The panels of fluorescent lights overhead lit the concrete walls, a large mirror gleaming on the opposite wall. She could faintly see her ragged reflection in it, warped by the strange tint of the glass. There were no windows, and Bex realized they must be underground.

Each side of the room was lined with simple metal cots, which were painted dark green. A set of plain sheets and a large lump of rubbery fabric were folded neatly and sitting at the end of each bed. Bordering the beds were metal lockers, painted the same dull color, useless to Bex since all she had were the clothes she was wearing. Under the mirror against the back wall were a row of metal toilets and crude-looking showers. It was strangely spartan for an organization that was obviously filthy rich.

Beneath the concrete and fluorescent lights, was a group of young men and women standing at the center and speaking in hushed voices, their eyes darting towards her. Bex noticed the way they all seemed to stand with their shoulders thrown back, chins lifted and spines straight. They were all dressed in blazers and collared shirts, some with wool sweaters and striped ties peeking out from under. She shifted in her own battered converse as she noticed their expensive-looking leather shoes. They were all glinting gold and rich fabric, just like everything else in this place.

Bex tucked a tangle of brown hair behind her ear, feeling their eyes burn into her. She clenched her jaw, meeting their gazes coolly. She walked forward, ignoring the way they scanned her ripped jeans and blood-stained jacket up and down. There were only two other girls, one with a round, friendly face and the other with black bangs framed by severe cheekbones.

Joan of Arc, my ass, she thought. The patriarchy strikes again.

One boy stood off to the side, away from the others. His shoulders were slumped, but she could see the tension in them. Underneath his cap, his eyes were scanning the group of candidates with as much apprehension as she was. The knot in her stomach loosened a bit as she realized she wasn't alone in this. She wasn't the only outsider.

He looked up at her and the shadow of his hat slipped away to reveal his face. He had a strong jaw, dotted with a shadow of stubble. Messy blonde hair the color of rusted gold poked out from underneath his cap. She wasn't blind. He was attractive. The kind that made girls on the street stop and whisper to their friends, giggling. And, judging by the way his lips were curling up in a smirk as he met her eyes, he knew it too.

It was the eyes she noticed, though. They were a startlingly dark gray, like the color of pavement after it had rained all night. Gritty and shadowed, but with flecks of light like the puddles that reflected the light rising over the horizon.

As soon as she thought it, Bex rolled her eyes. She hadn't come here to make dumb, poetic, descriptions of boys' eyes. She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms as his smirk widened. The two stared at one another, sizing each other up, until Merlin's voice broke through.

"Fall in," he ordered in his thick Scottish accent.

There was fumbling rush as the recruits quickly sorted themselves into two neat lines and folded their arms behind their backs. Bex stepped in line a few seconds too late, mimicking the posture of the girl next to her. Merlin stood in front of them, sizing them up. She shifted uncomfortably under his scrutinizing gaze.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began. "My name is Merlin. You are about to embark on what is probably the most dangerous job interview in the world." He met their gazes with a small smile, the kind that meant he knew everything they didn't. "One of you, and only one of you, will become the next Lancelot."

On her other side, a tall, dark-haired boy smirked. He shifted his weight to his other loafer-clad foot, cocking his head. He stood with a sort of swagger that made her clench her jaw smiled in a way that made her skin crawl.

Meanwhile, Merlin walked over to one of the cots. He reached downed grabbed the lump of fabric, holding it up in the air for them to see. "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

All around her, hands shot up as the candidates eagerly reached to answer his question. Bex just looked over at the gray-eyed boy, the only other one with his hand still at his side.

"Yes?" said Merlin, pointing at the dark-haired boy with his clipboard.

"Body bag, sir," he replied confidently.

"Correct," said Merlin, raising an eyebrow in approval. He looked at him again. "Charlie, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir," said Charlie smugly, rolling his shoulders back.

As soon as Merlin glanced away, he threw a look of disdain and contempt over at her. His eyes glittered maliciously, and he let out a tiny snort as he looked at her shabby appearance. Bex just gritted her teeth and kept her eyes on Merlin.

Merlin turned back to face them, pen in hand. "In a moment, you will each collect a body bag. You will write your name on that bag. You will write the details of your next-of-kin on that bag. This represents you acknowledgement of the risks you're about to face, as well as your agreement to strict confidentiality."

Merlin paused dramatically. "Which incidentally, if you break, will result in you and your next-of-kin being in that bag. Is that understood?"

Bex's eyes widened. What the hell? But looking around, everyone was nodding, faces calm. No one seemed to care that they had not only offered up their own lives, but the lives of everyone they held dear.

"Excellent," he said with a small smile. "Fall out."

He turned on his heel and left the room, the door shutting with a thud and once again leaving the new recruits alone behind. Bex let out a breath as the cluster of people dispersed as they walked over and plopped their expensive luggage on the cots. She picked the bed next to the pretty brunette girl, lifting up the body bag apprehensively. The blonde boy walked over to the cot next to hers, eying his own body bag with the same hesitation. Bex stared at the stark white underneath her bruised knuckles until a voice interrupted her.

"Hello."

It was the pretty, brown haired girl. She had high cheekbones and warm brown eyes ringed by ridiculously long lashes. Her hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail, the ends falling over her shoulders onto her plaid blazer.

"I'm Roxanne," she said, holding out a hand for Bex to shake with a smile. "But call me Roxy."

She shook it, feeling Roxy's warm palm beneath her own.

"I'm Bex."

"Nice to meet you," replied Roxy with a grin. "And this is Eggsy," she said, jerking her chin in the direction of the blonde boy, who was bent over, printing his name neatly on the label of his body bag.

"Yeah, call me Eggsy," he said, still scribbling on the body bag.

Then he looked up, his eyes locking onto Bex's. He looked her up and down, and a crooked smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. "Or, don't call me Eggsy, call me tonight," he winked.

Bex gave him a sweet smile. "Oh, you bet. Let me just make the call."

She pulled out her middle finger and pretended to dial. She held it up to her ear like she was waiting for the caller to pick up. "Oh! It's your mum! Hi, can I talk to Eggsy?"

Bex paused and nodded, pretending to listen. "Uh huh. Yes, I see. A sex addict? Poor boy. Oh yes, I've heard fantastic things about that therapist. Electroshock therapy does seem promising."

She turned to Eggsy and made eye contact. "Well, maybe that will teach your son that women are more than objects defined by sexuality by the social norms of our misconstrued society."

Then she mimed hanging up the phone and turned to Eggsy, crossing her arms. He was staring at her, mouth hanging open. Roxy let out a giggle.

She had been expecting him to retreat and sulk like most boys did when she rejected them, but he just laughed good-naturedly, the corners of his eyes crinkling. He looked at her, shaking his head slightly and smiling slightly

"That was by far the most elaborate display of sarcasm I have ever seen. I'm kind of impressed actually," he said.

"I like to dedicate myself to the part," Bex responded.

"Also, message received," Eggsy said, raising his hands apologetically. "Sorry for, um, the objectification of the...contraction of the society?"

"Close enough. Don't worry, Eggsy, someday you'll make some other lucky girl just as uncomfortable."

He squinted, leaning in to look closer at her, and Bex instinctively took a step back.

"Have I seen you somewhere before?" he asked, his eyebrows knit together in confusion as he searched her face. "Did we ever go out?"

Bex looked around, wrapping her arms around herself.

"I don't feel a chill. Hell must have not frozen over yet, so no. I would think you would remember who you've gone on dates with, considering there have been so few of them."

"You don't know how many dates I've been on!"

"I assumed. Probably correctly."

"Listen, I am single by choice," he spluttered.

"Who's choice? Women?"

"Wha- We're getting off topic. Listen, where have I seen you?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. Then his ash-colored eyes lit up.

"I've got it! Islington Police Station. You were in there for-"

Bex made a noise.

"-setting that kid on fire with a taser-"

Bex clapped a hand over his mouth, eyes widening. "Story time's over!" She turned to Roxy with an awkward smile. "Hah. Nothing happened. He's joking."

Roxy looked at her, unconvinced. Eggsy made a muffled noise under her hand, and she quickly took off her hand, stepping aside awkwardly.

"Really nice to meet you, Roxy," she added with a sheepish smile.

She turned back to Eggsy.

"So, why'd your mum name you Eggy? Tell me, is she particularly partial to naming children after poultry, or does she go for vegetables sometimes too?"

"It's Eggsy, not Eggy. And it's nickname."

"Oh, so you picked this? Do you hate yourself?"

"Hey!" he protested. "I like it. And trust me, if you had my name, you'd take Eggsy anyway."

Bex raised an eyebrow. "What name could be so awful that Eggsy is better than it?"

Eggsy grinned secretively. He opened his mouth, but his voice was cut off as Charlie and two other boys inserted themselves in between Bex and Eggsy. He stared down his long nose at Bex, lips curled in a nasty grin. The two boys stood on either side of him, flanking him in striped ties and khaki pants. They turned to Eggsy, making a semi circle around him.

"Eggy, eh? Where'd they dig you up?" Charlie scoffed.

Roxy stepped forward, her pretty face twisted up with worry. "You know we're not allowed to discuss who proposed us," she implored.

His smirk grew wider, if that was even possible. "No need to bite my head off, Rox. I'm only making conversation with our guests." he said smoothly, and Bex noticed how Roxy's lip curled in disgust when he called her "Rox".

"We're not guests," Bex said defiantly. "We're here to stay, actually," she said, lifting up her small chin.

Charlie looked her up and and down in a way that made her skin crawl, then laughed.

"And I thought they were scraping the bottom of the barrel with Eggy over here," said Charlie, jerking his chin in Eggsy's direction.

"It's Eggsy," he said stiffly, his posture rigid and his jaw clenched tight.

"Hey, Charlie, the bathroom is right over there," Bex said sweetly, pointing at the row of metal toilets. "Maybe you should use it, since you're full of shit."

"You common types sure are charming," he bit back.

Bex took a step forward, her fists clenched. "Yes, the word common implies that we're easily found. As for you, well, I'd reckon it's nearly impossible to find someone who is truly as much as an ass as you are."

She was face to face with him now, hers a perfectly calm mask while his was twisted up in a sneer. "Bitch," he hissed under his breath, looking down at her.

Bex smiled at him and patted the collar of his shirt. "Call me bitch ever again and I'll take one of daddy's precious golf clubs and shove it so far up your ass you'll be able to taste it. Got it?"

Her voice was calm, but even she could hear the steely current rippling beneath it. She took a deep breath and turned back to Eggsy before she did something she would regret. Charlie muttered something under his breath, then retreated to the other side of the room, throwing her a glare over his shoulder that she returned coolly.

She tapped her fingers against the white, plastic, label, feeling the same pang of uneasiness shoot through her as she wondered what she was really getting herself into. Roxy looked from Charlie, who was laughing with his thugs, to Bex, who was staring down at her body bag again. Bex looked up when she felt a hand on her arm.

"Ignore them," Roxy reassured her, her brown eyes wide.

"Thanks," said Bex with a small smile. She turned around as the only other girl walked up behind her. She was wearing a stiffly tailored charcoal blazer and skirt that matched the severely cut ebony bangs that fell in an even line above her eyebrows. The girl looked much older than nineteen, or even twenty, with the sharp lines of her face and her hollow cheekbones. Her pale hand was outstretched to Bex, a blue ballpoint pen in her fingers.

"Need a pen?" she offered, her thick eyebrows raised.

"Cheers." Bex took it from her, pulling the cap off.

"I'm Amelia," the girl added. "You're Bex Alden, right?"

She looked up in surprise. "Wha- How'd you know that?"

Amelia laughed, and Bex noticed the way it softened the hard lines of her face and lit up her eyes. "Don't worry, I just read off your body bag."

Bex let out a relieved laugh, then turned her eyes back to the body bag again. Her name stared back, messily scrawled in Bex's own nearly-illegible handwriting. It was the kind of writing from someone in a hurry, the letters tripping over one another and tangling together. The point of her pen hovered above the blank space labeled NEXT OF KIN in small, sharp back letters. There was only one name for her to write, but she could feel Roxy watching her.

"It's just scare tactics, Bex," said Roxy. "Classic army technique."

Bex nodded, her pen moving to form the words "Patricia Alden" in cobalt ink. "No one's going to die," Roxy added.

She looked back at Charlie, who still smirking and casting disdainful looks in their direction. "Too bad," she said with a half-smile.

Eggsy laughed next to her, and Bex felt her smile grow wider.

☂

Bex pulled her sopping hair back into a ponytail as she clambered into her cot. There was no hot water in the showers, and she could feel her icy skin prickling. The grit and created blood had been finally scrubbed from her body, and her skin felt raw. She had changed out of her dirty jeans and into the simple cotton pajamas that had been placed at the end of her bed. As soon as her old clothes had hit the floor, Merlin had kicked them aside into a chute in the floor that had appeared without warning. "The incinerator," he had said, casting her clothes a scornful look.

She had hidden her beloved converse in the locker, not wanting them to suffer the same fate. Now, she wished she had her jacket, because it was freezing in this concrete box. The thin material of her plain white t-shirt and gray shorts was doing nothing to prevent the cold air from hitting her skin, and her hair dripped ice-cold water onto her shoulders. Bex reached up to wipe a drop of water from her forehead, only to have her fingers come away stained crimson.

The cut on her head was bleeding again, and she realized there were scarlet drops adorning the front of her shirt as well. Eggsy noticed too, because he was climbing over his own cot next to hers and standing in front of her. His eyes scanned her injury, his eyes widening. "Jesus, Bex. Give a guy some warning before you start bleeding everywhere, yeah?"

"It's really not that bad," she said, turning her head away.

He turned her face back to him, staring into the gash on her forehead. He was uncomfortably close. Eggsy drew back, and she let out a sigh of relief.

"C'mon," he said, motioning for her to come over to his bed. She gave him a look, and he rolled his eyes. "Not like that. I'm just going to put a fucking band-aid on your forehead."

He opened his locker and pulled out a small, white metal box. "What?" she protested. "You have a first-aid kit? How come I didn't get one?" Her locker had been empty, except for a heavy black flashlight.

"You got a flashlight. Stop whining."

"Yeah, but a first-aid kit is way cooler." She batted her eyelashes at him. "Want to trade?"

Eggsy scoffed, pulling a band-aid from the kit. "They aren't Pokeman cards. Take your flashlight and be quiet."

She grumbled, but let him press the flesh-colored piece of fabric onto her head. His tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth slightly in concentration as he placed it over the cut gently. "There," he said, taking a step away and examining his work proudly. She got off the bed.

"Congratulations, Eggsy. You've done what every two year old with hands can do."

"Hey! A thank you seems appropriate!" he protested as she climbed under the fleece blankets of her own cot.

"Save my life someday. Then I'll thank you," said Bex, pulling the covers over herself and turning to her side.

She could hear Eggsy doing the same, and her other side, Roxy was already fast asleep. Bex looked at Roxy's face, marveling at how young she looked. Roxy was nice, but she had the kind of wide innocence in her eyes that revealed how easy life had come for her. Her smooth skin was unmarked, and Bex traced the scar on her own wrist.

Eggsy, on the other hand, had come from the same hell she had. Bex could see it in his eyes. She been alive long enough to see someone who was running from their past.

Suddenly the fluorescent lights clicked off, and Bex was left laying in the dark. She pulled the blankets tighter around her. It was hard to believe only a few hours before she had been in her smoky flat instead of this concrete room, surrounded by nine other breathing bodies. She realized how heavy she felt with exhaustion, and her eyelids were falling shut before she could even close them. In a matter of seconds, her hand went slack as she drifted away into sleep.

☂

Bex dreamed she was drowning.

She was sinking into an abyss of blue, blind in the inky darkness. The water filled her mouth and nose, seeping into her lungs. She moved her arms furiously, but she kept falling further. She jerked, and Bex suddenly woke with a ragged gasp to find that the water rising around her was very, very real. This was no dream.

She scrambled to her feet on top of her thin mattress, her wet sheets tangling around her ankles. She jammed her fist into the switch that illuminated the panel of light above her, the room flickering to life as other did the same. The water was rising at an incredible pace, already lapping around her knees.

"Water we going to do?" Bex asked, realizing afterwards that this might not be the ideal time for bad jokes. It slipped out without her meaning to. She said stupid things when she was panicked, and drowning in this room was no exception.

Eggsy turned to her, one arm gripping the ceiling. "Did you...Did you just make a pun?" Eggsy asked incredulously. "While we're trapped in a room that's filling with water in which we could potentially drown?"

"I think so," Bex said weakly.

Eggsy looked at her with a funny look on his face, like he couldn't make up his mind about something. Probably whether she was crazy or not.

The water kept rising, and Bex realized she should probably be searching for a way out instead of making stupid puns.

"No one panic!" Charlie called out. "Listen to me! Stay calm!"

"You're right!" she hollered back, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "There's absolutely no need to panic. I'm perfectly calm. This is like a picnic! Except with death!"

Bex pushed against the roof with no avail. It was hard, solid concrete.

Charlie's eyes, which had been scanning the room rapidly, lit up suddenly. "Loo snorkels!" he yelled suddenly, pointing at the toilets. "Loo snorkels!"

"Loo snorkels?" Eggsy asked, his voice rough with panic and his eyes wide in confusion.

"Shower heads!" Roxy burst out.

"Shower heads? What the hell-" Bex asked as the others dove towards the toilets and faucets at the end of the room.

Suddenly a flash of light above her caught her eye. The panel above her was cracked, one of the light hanging off crookedly as copper wires poked out and sparked silver. Bex realized with a gut-wrenching jolt that if the water touched it the would all be lifeless in a matter of seconds as soon as the electricity reached their hearts. The water had reached her stomach and she estimated she had about thirty seconds until they were all dead. Bex took a deep breath, feeling her lungs expand before diving down into the water.

She swam over to the switch, fingers groping. Bex found the edge of it, and she tried desperately to pry it off. She could feel her fingernails ripping, but the plastic lifted up ever so slightly. With one final jerk, it came off in her fingers, revealing a tangle of wires and metal. Bex realized she really had to idea what she was doing and one wrong move could easily send a jolt of electricity through her, but panic was clouding her mind and making her grasp at the wires blindly. The wires refused to give way, and the water was nearly a foot from the ceiling.

Desperation choking her, she swam to the first aid kit, sitting on Eggsy's bed underwater. She flipped the top and dug through until she found the surgical scissors. She kicked her legs, propelling herself back to the switch.

She had hot-wired hundreds of cars. A light panel couldn't really be that different, could it?

She used the tiny scissors to cut the green and yellow wires, twisting it to bind them together. For one second, she waited for the sparks to travel up her veins and freeze her heart, then the lights all around blinked out.

If there had been any air in her lungs, Bex would have let out a sigh of relief. Now the room was completely filled water, and darkness. Bex could feel her chest straining for air, and she quickly grabbed the flashlight from her locker, praying by some miracle it would work. As she pressed the button, it flickered once, then let out a bright beam that cut through the inky water. Flashlights that worked underwater.

Fucking spies, she thought.

Her small moment of victory ended in a shuddering jolt as she realized they were still trapped, and her head was ready to explode with the pressure of holding her breath. She tried to slow her heart, knowing panic took more oxygen, but it was beating wildly and her lungs were screaming. She had heard the door seal behind them, and she knew they were stuck. But Bex refused to drown in here, not when she had just got her freedom.

The mirror, she thought wildly. Her reflection had been distorted, she remembered. No normal glass looked like that. Eggsy seemed to have had the same idea, because he was gripping the edges of it, his lips blue.

She kicked over to him, but her legs nearly to weak to even move and she could feel herself start to sink. The edges of her vision were started to turn back, spots dancing before her eyes. Her lungs were exploding, but she watched through blurry vision as Eggsy drew his fist back and punched the mirror over and over. She closed her eyes, feeling the last bit of of adrenaline leave her.

Then, suddenly, as she hovered on the brink of unconsciousness, she felt her body jerk as the water became a current pulling her forward. She tumbled out of the room in a freezing tumble of bodies and water. Everything became a blurred together for a moment, then she was laying on a cold concrete floor and blinking up into the sudden brightness.

She sucked in a breath, feeling her lungs choke as she spluttered. Eggsy crawled towards her, and Bex managed to pull herself upright. She slumped against Eggsy, feeling as if she would never move again. Then, the spots faded as her heart started to slow and her lungs filled and emptied with air.

She realized Merlin was watching from a corner. He pushed up his glasses, made a mark on his clipboard, and stopped forward. He was even wearing a raincoat she noticed, with a surge of anger.

"Congratulations on completing your first task," he said calmly. "Charlie, Roxy, well done. For those of you who are still confused, if you can get a breathing tube around the U-bend of a toilet, you have an unlimited air supply. Simple physics, worth remembering."

He glanced at his clipboard again, the at the gaping hole of shattered glass. "Eggsy, nice job spotting that two way mirror."

His eyes searched, before locking onto hers. "And, Bex, congratulations. You would all be dead if it weren't for her. You'd be surprised how many candidates don't notice. It's really quite messy, and then we have to go out and find a whole new group of recruits," said Merlin casually, as if it was nothing more than a minor annoyance.

Bex gaped up at him, feeling the urge to break his clipboard over his stupid bald head.

"However, as far as I'm concerned, every single one of you has failed," Merlin added, his tone severe. "You all forgot the most important thing.Teamwork."

He pointed towards to room, which was still half-full with water. Bex felt her heart drop as she noticed the figure laying face-down in the water. Her throat closed up and she felt sick as she realized Amelia's chest wasn't moving.

They had killed her.

Maybe not on purpose, but it was their fault all the same, and she could feel the guilt weighing heavily on her shoulders. Bex had been so busy saving her own skin she hadn't even noticed Amelia wasn't with them.

"So much for classic army technique," Eggsy murmured softly, his eyes frozen on Amelia's limp body.

Bex turned away. She shoved Amelia's death into the part of her brain where she put everything she never wanted to remember and took a deep breath. She straightened her shoulders and walked away. No amount of grieving was going to bring Amelia back, and now she had her own survival to worry about.

Grief and guilt would have to wait until she was done risking her life.

──────

a quick note:

this chapter is almost as long as every damn harry potter book combined. you're welcome for all 6000 words of pure crap. bex and eggsy finally met though and i have christened their ship #aldwin.

also a bunch of people have asked me when they're going to get together. i'm trying to drag it out bc i don't want them to fall in love instantly. i think i want them to be friends first (with sexual tension obviously)