Of course Summer Atreides knew these doors. The room. The hallway.

Everything was familiar. She had been fierce, dangerous, deadly in this place before. Blood had tainted her hands as she waved over her prey, holding up their head as she pulled information out of their spewing lips.

But she couldn't fathom why they were there now. Not after going to eat. It was already growing late, and she was sure her father would have wanted to rest so his work was productive tomorrow. She knew him well, and this was out of the ordinary.

"Father, what is going on down here? I thought we were going to go home, not come down here," Summer said, almost complaining like a child who whined to go to a park.

Her eyes narrowed, brows furrowing in confusion as she approached. Through the glass, she spotted him. Uncontrollably, her eyes widened, her blood running cold through her veins as she felt goosebumps travel down her arms. Sweat threatened to build on her as she spoke to her father.

"Why is Ollie captured?"

knox prescott

☉

his ice plinks against the side of the glass as he turns the tumbler in his palm. his fingers tighten as he looks over her, sees her reaction. she is a stranger in front of him. where is his warrior? his incorruptible spy? his fucking daughter? 

he looks down at his drink, swirls the ice around with his pinkie. and then he takes a sip, letting the liquor linger on his tongue. smoky. hint of apples and tumeric. he swallows and it burns delightfully going down his throat. 

"because i want your brother," he says. he holds out the glass and logan steps forward to take it. then steps back. 

"and you said he knows where he is." he narrows his eyes at her now, steps closer, stands over her. and then gestures to ollie, who's begun pulling at his restraints and yelling hoarsely. 

"now," he says, "you will make him talk."

Summer Atreides

☉

The words that slipped from her lips were of genuine curiosity, tainted with fear. Though she didn't know if her father dearest would pick up on that. Would Merrick Prescott believe that she was defying him, by asking him these questions?

His reaction was a sure fire sign that Summer fucked up.

Her scarlet gaze pulled away from Ollie to her father as he stood in front of her, towering and looming as he spoke down to her. Not as an equal, as he seemed to most of the time.

He was ordering her to pull information from Knox's ex-boyfriend, all because she had lied to cover up for him. To protect him and samuel carter. A wave of nausea crawled through her belly into her throat, threatening her to spill her dinner onto the floor.

What had she done?

Her head turned to the side as she peered at Ollie, pulled and screaming against the restraints he was bound to. An innocent man, pulled into this shit because of her.

Summer felt the eyes locked on her as she left the room, walking to the room Ollie was locked in. The door creaked as it opened, and it creaked again as she shut it behind her.

"Ollie."

knox prescott

☉

merrick's fingers are itching in the way they do when things aren't going as planned. he'd envisioned this as a sort of bonding experience, thought perhaps that summer would be delighted to know her intel had amounted to something. that they were going to find him. 

but he'd looked at her phone. he knows there's something she's not telling him. 

but he does not dare show the frustration on his face. wordlessly, he watches her enter the room. the one-way glass will hide her view of himself and his bruisers. he holds his phone out to logan. 

"start recording. make sure you get both of their faces."

/ / 

ollie stops his thrashing when the door opens. still as a mouse, he blinks through a bloodied gaze. warmth still drips down his cheek. confusion and fear give way to shock, and then anger. 

"fucking christ. the fuck's he done this time, summer?" he tries once again against his restraints and then gives up, slumping back into the chair. 

"un-fucking-believable. what do you want? what does he want?" he looks past her, raising his voice at the mirror, "what do you want, knox? some sick, twisted payback? for gods' sake, we broke up five years ago!" 

Summer Atreides

☉

Summer hated that look of near calm Ollie gave her when she entered the room as he gave up thrashing against his restraints. It was unsuspecting and unknowing, like a baby bird waiting for its mother to return to the nest.

And she was nothing more than an ARBOK coming in for the kill.

He shouted at the mirror, and Summer knew that she had to make a show or else more questions would head her way. She said an apology inside her head before she reared her hand back and slapped Ollie across the face, hard.

Grabbing a fistful of hair, she pulled his head up, trying her best to look intimidating. But she didn't know if her façade was beginning to crack.

"Where is he Ollie? We have all the information we need... no need to hide anything from us anymore..."

knox prescott

☉

and just like that, his rolling anger shifts from the boy behind the glass to the sister slapping him across the face. it reignites the pain of old wounds and blood dribbles out of his left nostril.

she yanks his head up and he manages a smile, teeth stained red. it's been a very long time, but ollie's mucked around in knox' heart long enough to know the workings of the prescott family. 

"aw, sums, you don't expect me to believe you really lost him, huh?" and then, under his breath, a whisper wet with blood, "or that just what you want them to think?

"gonna have to rough me up more than that, princess." he yanks his head to the side and spits in her face. 

Summer Atreides

☉

Summer glared at him with cold and fiery eyes, the first twinge of annoyance crossing her features. She needed Ollie to cooperate, for his sake and her own.

Not play this stupid "I know what you're doing," game.

"Shut it. You have a lot to say for someone bound and beaten," she hissed, her nails unkindly digging into his scalp.

However, he tore his head from her hand and spit at her. Luckily, it landed on her dress, staining it with the ugliest blood-tinged spit. Summer let out an annoyed huff, lifting her skirts and throwing a kick to his gut.

"You have a lot of nerve. You know who you're dealing with. Do you really want to play this game, Ollie?"

knox prescott

☉

really, he's just buying time for himself. trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. ollie hasn't seen knox in years. he hasn't heard from knox in years. fuck, he'd been on his way out to alola when he'd gotten scooped. ready to rid hoenn and its nonsense goodbye. 

the kick comes swiftly and he doubles over, seeing stars. he gasps and coughs, spraying more blood to the side. and then he draws his shoulders up with extreme effort, head lolling back as he breathes deeply.

he could be an ass, but keeping up the charade isn't going to get him anywhere. he grimaces and shakes his head weakly. 

"fine. no fuckin' games. i haven't seen him, summer. i don't know where he is. now let me the fuck go."

Summer Atreides

☉

Summer watched him, falling in her kick, as he coughed blood over the floor and onto her heels and her dress. Ruined... first by alcohol and now by blood.

"And I liked this outfit."

She grabbed a chair, pulling it forward as she took a seat in front of him. She waited for him to collect himself, though she tapped her fingers on her arm to appear impatient. In reality, her paranoia and anxiety were getting the best of her.

"You don't know where he is? Then why did I gather intel saying you knew where he was? And where were you going before we caught you?"

Summer leaned back, crossing her leg and pushing her foot forward onto the chair. A threat to hit other places, or worse...

knox prescott

☉

he's deduced that the siblings had gone on one of their binges. he's thinking that knox probably dragged his damn name through the mud while he was high on something, spun some ridiculous fantasies about getting back together, and then woke up on a ditch somewhere on the western side of hoenn. 

or maybe he never woke up at all. 

he looks at her incredulously, flinching back when she places her foot up right by his goodies. 

"i don't know, summer. 'cause you're bad your fuckin' job? i was on my way out on holiday so piss off. check my phone. check my socials. i haven't talked to knox in years."

//

from behind the glass, merrick grows impatient.

Summer Atreides

☉

"Watch your mouth," she spat, pressing her foot closer, enough to push just enough of pressure down to make him uncomfortable.

"I find it hard to believe when he's whined about you, even though you claim you haven't seen him in all these years. 'I miss Ollie. I miss him so bad. Getting fucked up and fucked by him. Wah wah wah,'" Summer mocked.

Whether or not he'd believe her, she didn't know. But she did recount a time or two Knox whispered Ollie's name like a lost prayer, a fantasy he couldn't reach again.

She sighed, standing up. Walking to the control room, she placed her hands on her hips in front of her father.

"Well? What do you propose we do? He insists he hasn't seen him. Maybe we can get a lead, if we take him out. I can go personally to deliver him back to you."

In reality, Summer could let Ollie escape and devise a plan with samuel carter and Knox. It was time. Too many things were going wrong. They had to act now.

knox prescott

☉

logan looks back at his boss because the aura radiating off of merrick is red with fury. and yet merrick neatly steps beside him and plucks the phone from his bruiser's hands. summer walks up to the glass. while she stares at herself in the mirror, he zooms in on her face, then slides the angle behind her to the boy in the chair. 

and when she's done, he taps the screen to end the recording, and hands it back to logan. 

"cut that last bit. the last thing she said is if we take him out. send it." his voice is grave, but it's soft. he brushes stray lint from logan's shoulder. "and then you take the picture when i'm done and send that too."

the door opens and merrick steps in, looks warmly at his daughter, hand outstretched to cup her cheek. his smile is soft and forgiving, but it does not reach his eyes.

he is gentle still when he says, "this will be the last time you disappoint me."

Summer Atreides

☉

It was quiet, for a moment. Ollie said nothing, perhaps wallowing in pain for a moment or reflecting on how exactly he got himself in a situation like this.

"I gotta find an out. Find an out..."

Her mind was churning, her teeth grinding as the door opened and her father entered the room. She turned, looking at him expectantly. Waiting for him to agree with her plan. Because it was always like that.

Because she knew she could play him like an instrument.

But his hand, as gentle as it was, felt dangerous still as she remembered the harsh slap to her face that she received that one day Knox was home. And his smile refused to meet his gaze as he spoke to her.

Summer's eyebrows furrowed.

"Father?"

knox prescott

☉