Rogue Sloth

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Sorry that one took a while! I was busy again this morning, but I think that's my last appointment for at least a few days or a week or so.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“In-Interrogation?” Cas spluttered in shock. More familiar with the military’s tactics of gathering information than he wanted to be, he cringed at the thought of Iris going through their torturous questioning. If he’d had the mobility, he would have leapt up from his bed at that moment and demanded that she be released at once. However, in his current state, the revelation merely made him dizzy, and the vital signs monitor beside him whirred with the spike in his heartrate.

He was taken aback by how quickly the soldiers had begun prodding at her about the rebellion. There was still light coming in through the window in his room, so even without looking for a clock, he knew he hadn’t been out for that long. He wished they would have waited until he’d woken up before they’d made any decisions, so he could have had a chance to speak on her behalf. “You didn’t need to send her to the interrogators,” he said, worry seeping into his voice. “I’m sure that if you’d just asked her, she would have been willing to help. The Scourge hurt her too. Also, she has amnesia, so she doesn’t remember everything…” He trailed off, his throat tightening as he imagined the interrogators questioning her about the rebels and believing she was lying when she told them she couldn’t remember much. The soldiers were ruthless when they believed a prisoner was hiding something from them.

“If that were true, she would have been helpful the first time she was questioned,” Atlas rebutted unsympathetically. “Matthew informed us that she’s already refused to talk once.”

Silently, Jacob swore as the king revealed that he had been listening to his conversation with the interrogator after all. Picking up on Caspian’s fondness for the girl, he’d wanted to keep quiet about the details of the questioning, including the fact that Iris was currently undergoing her second round with the soldiers, possibly with the use of Aproveset. What was done was done, and there was no changing it, so there was no reason to tell the prince about the gory details when it would just needlessly upset him. He would have preferred to break the news to him at a later time, when he hadn’t just woken up from a surgical operation.

Upon finding out that Iris had already been questioned more than once, Cas felt like the room was tilting. If he’d known the soldiers were going to subject her to so much right after she was sent to the penitentiary, he would have fought harder to keep them from taking her away from him. Now that he knew, he felt guilt-stricken that he’d let them arrest her so easily and hadn’t told them that she was on their side. He hoped she didn’t think he’d forgotten about her the instant he’d been offered medical treatment. His wounds had needed tending to, but he wasn’t so focused on them that he didn’t care what became of her in the capital. Far from it, he’d had an entire plan to protect her that had unraveled the instant the soldiers had confronted them outside the tower.

“She probably refused because she’s freaked out,” he reasoned, trying to come up with an excuse for Iris’s lack of cooperation that his father could accept. “Please, dad, this has to stop. I know what it looks like, but I swear she’s innocent. The other rebels manipulated her into working with them. She helped me get away from their leader and from the others after we were caught again. Doesn’t that speak more into who she is than the other stuff?”

Suddenly, a knock sounded on the door, and the doctor stepped back inside the room with a cup of water in hand. His eyes fixed immediately on the prince, and he clicked his tongue. “Your Highness, please try to stay calm. Your vitals are elevated, and you’re putting your body under unnecessary stress.” He stepped over to the bed and bent forward to press a button that lifted the top half of the mattress just enough that his patient would be able to drink the water without spilling it on himself.

Atlas’s eyes narrowed as he watched his son. He found it strange how fervently Caspian was trying to defend the girl who had led him into the trap in the first place. The prince had always been prone to blindly trusting other people, and this time was most likely the same. Unwilling to believe that a rebel had miraculously changed her mind about killing him, he was certain that she had another motive for “rescuing” him from the others. She had probably only done so to convince him to trust her. She may even be after the crown, he thought, gripping the metal arm of his chair in anger. It wasn’t unreasonable to assume that the girl had an agenda to win over his heir and try to put herself in line for the succession through a romantic involvement. He glanced at the doctor.

“Is there any way to have Caspian’s brain examined?” he asked, ignoring the way the prince gawked at him in response to the coldhearted question. “He’s clearly been affected by one of his captors, and I’d like to find out if she did anything to him while he was gone.”

I doubt what happened between them was as malicious as you think, Jacob thought with a subtle roll of his eyes, though he held his tongue. The more he listened to Caspian talk about the girl, the more convinced he felt that the two had gotten closer than Atlas was apparently willing to believe. The prince wasn’t brainwashed; he was just young and smitten.

The doctor cleared his throat awkwardly, “I, err, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with him cognitively, Your Majesty…”

“I don’t care what you ‘think.’ If you can have him examined, then do it to rule out the possibility,” Atlas asserted.

“What the hell?” Cas snapped, frustrated that his father was more inclined to believe there was something wrong with him rather than give Iris the benefit of the doubt. “I’m not brain damaged.”

“Sire, if I may,” the doctor fidgeted with his clipboard. “The kind of effect you’re suggesting wouldn’t show up on an MRI. If you think there’s a need for further examination, contacting a psychiatrist would be the best route to take.”

Feeling spurned in the exchanged, Cas let out an irritable scoff and turned his head away as he drank the water he’d been given. Not fifteen minutes after his father had acted like a real parent, he’d ruined the reunion by accusing him of being mentally incompetent. He supposed he should have known better than to think the king had changed. If he won’t listen to me, I’ll just have to help Iris, myself, he resolved.

“I’m fine,” he insisted, turning back to the doctor. “When can I leave? I’d prefer to recover in my own bed.” He also wanted to get away from all the people who were keeping a close eye on him, so he could pay a visit to the penitentiary in person.

“Unfortunately, we’ll need to hold you for at least twelve more hours, Your Highness,” the doctor smiled at him sympathetically. “You still need to have a couple more rounds of Accuparacin before you can be released, and they have to be spaced apart by six hour intervals. Plus, the longer you stay here, the longer we can keep you on the intravenous versions of Pansine and Amoxiran, which will hasten your overall recovery.”

Cas bit his lip. Twelve hours was too long. By the time he was able to leave, who knew what the soldiers would have done with Iris? He needed a more immediate solution. “Okay, fine,” he relented, glancing back at his father and Jacob. The guard was loyal to the king, but he wondered if he could convince him not to do anything extreme to Iris until he had a chance to fight for her release from prison.

“Schedule the psychiatrist,” Atlas ordered. “I’d like the appointment to happen before he comes back to the palace.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the doctor bowed and stepped out of the room to fulfill the request.

In the same moment, Jacob lifted a hand to his ear as he received word from Matthew about what had happened during the interrogation. “Fuck,” he hissed under his breath. It seemed like things were not going well at the penitentiary. Rising from his seat, he bowed curtly to Atlas. “I need to take care of this,” he informed the king with a gesture to his earpiece.

The monarch waved him off, and he stepped into the hallway, not wanting to have this conversation with Caspian in earshot. “Give her the goddamn antidote now,” he commanded the soldier sternly. “What the fuck happened? Is she epileptic? Keep an eye on her, and if she doesn’t get better fast, have someone bring her by air to the hospital for emergency treatment.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Yeah, we went to a restaurant with my mom while she's still in town.

It was fun to read! I'm just enjoying this part in general

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Complying with his father’s demand, Caspian filled him and Jacob in on everything that had happened since the night he’d been taken from the capital. He told them about how he’d been ambushed by Ethan; how the rebels had transported him to Regis’s basement, where he’d been held captive for a few days; how the rebel leader had caught him trying to escape and beaten him; how Iris had helped him escape. He also described his experiences in the districts beyond the capital: their flight through Bel Bicis and the close encounter with the bombers. He left out the detail of the dead bodies they’d found. Just thinking about them again made him taste bile, and he didn’t want to vomit when he was still recovering from dehydration.

From there, he skipped over his night at the pub with Iris to when Ethan and Thomas had found them again. He explained that the former had tried to “interrogate” him, and that he’d been shot because he’d refused to say anything. Lastly, he described how the military had intervened at the perfect time to allow Iris to free him again and help him get back to the border. When he finished speaking, he fell quiet, winded from the effort of recounting all of it. The painkiller took away enough of his pain to allow him to talk, but it didn’t completely remove his shortness of breath after telling a story.

Atlas and Jacob took a moment to absorb all of it as well. The guard couldn’t believe just how much his prince had been through and survived. By the sound of it, the girl who’d come with him, Iris, really had been on his side too. He studied Caspian quietly, suspecting that there was more going on than the prince had said. Although he hadn’t stated it outright, he knew the heir to the throne had taken an interest in her before he’d disappeared, so it couldn’t have been a coincidence that they’d returned together. He just wondered how far things had gone during the time in between his abduction and his reappearance at the edge of the city.

“Hm,” Atlas grunted. “I’ll have the soldiers examine the bodies of the deceased to see if Ethan Williams was among them. If not, there will be a warrant issued for his arrest.”

Cas nodded tiredly. “So now you now all of it,” he concluded, turning his head toward the others, who’d taken seats near the door. It felt good to get everything off his chest—or as much as he could, since there were still some secrets left—and to know that he had been missed while he’d been gone. The only reason why his father hadn’t looked for him was because he’d thought he was dead, which reminded him that he had some questions of his own.

“I was wondering,” he frowned. “Why did you think I’d been killed be the rebels?”

“Nox-Fleuret,” Jacob sighed.

“When Regis Nox-Fleuret was interrogated, he claimed to have killed you,” Atlas elaborated. “He was under the influence of Aproveset at the time, so we’d had no reason to believe that he was lying to us. In fact, I’m still not sure how he managed to lie while on the drug in the first place.” He turned toward Jacob sternly.

“I have no idea either, sire,” the guard shrugged. “I still need to ask the scientists what they think happened.”

“Wait, back up,” Cas furrowed his brows. “You have him in your custody? How? I was just with him a few days ago…”

“Most likely, we barely missed each other,” Jacob replied. “We were searching for you in the beginning, and our leads took us to Nox-Fleuret’s house in Tongsen. When we raided the property, he was the only person present. We found what I’m assuming was the cell he made to hold you along with recent bloodstains that were tested and came back as a match for yours.”

“That must have happened right after Iris and I left,” the prince mused in disbelief. He’d been so close to being rescued and had no idea.

“Must have,” Jacob agreed. “Regardless, Nox-Fleuret told us that he’d killed you, and His Majesty sentenced him to death by firing squad the next day.”

Cas’s eyes widened slightly. “He’s dead?” he breathed, stunned by the news that Iris’s father had been killed. The man who’d imprisoned him and threatened to take his life was gone. He was relieved to hear it but also felt a pang of empathy for her. Both of her parents were dead now. He didn’t want to know what that was like.

Thinking about Iris, his eyes drifted to his father again. The soldiers had arrested her because of the king’s order to apprehend anyone who’d been involved in his abduction, but he’d just explained that she wasn’t an enemy. Hoping that the monarch might revoke his decision, he attempted tentatively, “So… now that you know Iris isn’t an enemy, will you let her out of the prison? She saved my life multiple times over, and she doesn’t deserve to be locked up.”

Atlas observed him for a moment before he spoke, “You shouldn’t worry about that right now.”

“Dad, come on,” Cas insisted. “After everything I told you, can’t you see that she isn’t a criminal? She should be given a room in our home, not a five-by-five meter block of cement monitored by guards.”

“I won’t invite a member of the rebellion into the palace,” Atlas stated firmly. “But for her good deed, I’ll consider allowing her to go back to her home district alive after her questioning is concluded.”

At that, Caspian paled, “Her what?”

Jacob cleared his throat, meeting the prince’s gaze solemnly, “She’s currently undergoing an interrogation to find out what she knows about the Scourge.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Oh nice xD I just got back from dinner, so I'm not going anywhere until tomorrow

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

It ended up being pretty long. Hopefully worth the wait though ^^

I'm also excited to see what happens to Iris. We have so much going on, it's great

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

The first thing Caspian was aware of was that he couldn’t move. Stirring as he slowly came out of the medically induced sleep he’d been put under, a low groan escaped his lips, and he shifted drowsily. His whole body felt heavy, and his limbs felt like they’d been restrained. Confused by the sensation, his dark eyes fluttered open, and he tried to focus his gaze enough to figure out where he was. He remembered collapsing just outside the capital and being carried into the ambulance on a stretcher, but beyond that, everything was hazy.

Over his head, he could see a white, paneled ceiling with recessed lights. Hospital? He wondered tiredly, attempting to lift his head to see more. As soon as he did, he realized why he’d felt so confined. The doctors had set him in a fairly uncomfortable position. His right forearm and left leg had been elevated with slings, and an IV needle was attached to the back of his left hand. A splint held his broken wrist in place, while crisp, white bandages dressed his left bicep and thigh, where he’d been stabbed and shot. The way they’d arranged his body, he couldn’t have done much moving around even if he’d tried to.

Laying his head back down, he closed his eyes again, still half-asleep from the effects of the anesthesia. His clothes had been replaced with a hospital gown, and a sterilized blanket was draped across his hips, most likely left there in case he became too cold and needed an extra layer to warm up. Absently, he realized he wasn’t in nearly as much pain as he had been the last time he’d been conscious. He guessed the nurses had added a strong painkiller to his IV bag. This is the first time I’ve felt this good in a week, he mused with a faint shake of his head. A dull ache still permeated his peace, a sign that he wasn’t fully recovered yet, but for the most part, he almost felt like he was healed.

Just as he began to wonder where the doctor was—he couldn’t easily push a button to call for a nurse in his current position—he heard the creak of the door and raised his head again to see who was coming. The fluids they’d been giving him had helped with his dehydration, but he still wanted to ask for some water to wet his tongue. To his surprise though, it wasn’t a person in scrubs who showed up in his room. He blinked at the sight of his father, accompanied by the head of their security team, Jacob.

For a moment, everything felt surreal. He’d gone through so much since he’d been kidnapped, waiting for Atlas to rescue him, hating the man for abandoning him, and discovering that everyone had thought he was dead. He didn’t know what to think or say. His mind went blank, but luckily, the king broke the silence.

“You are alive,” Atlas breathed, dropping his cane to the floor as he rushed over to the bed and wrapped his arms around his son.

Cas’s eyes widened at the display. He hadn’t seen his father show this much emotion since his mother had died. The way Atlas embraced him now, wiping away any doubt he’d ever had that the king didn’t love him, stirred a sense of fondness inside of him that made him wish he was able to return the hug. However, instead, a grimace took over his features, and he squirmed against the monarch’s arms. “Can’t breathe…” he gasped, feeling a fresh burst of pain deep inside his chest that the painkillers couldn’t contain.

Responding to his son’s complaint, Atlas pulled back from the embrace and placed a hand on the side rail of the hospital bed to keep his balance. His eye swept over the prince’s body, taking in each bandaged wound. The more he located, the more his mood changed from relieved to enraged. “What happened?” he asked, his voice tinted with anger. “Who did this to you?”

“It’s a long story,” Cas frowned and glanced at Jacob. “Could you call a nurse and tell them I want some water?”

“Of course, Your Highness,” the guard bowed and turned toward the door.

Before he reached it, someone else pushed it open from the other side, and a doctor stepped into the room. The man froze near the entryway, clearly not expecting to see two other people in the room with his patient. After his initial surprise, though, he recovered. “Your Majesty,” he greeted the king with a respectful bow and then turned toward Caspian. “Ah, good, you’re awake.” Striding closer, he lifted a clipboard and thumbed through the pages. “Would you like to go over your charts?”

Cas glanced at his father, who looked annoyed by the interruption but waved a hand in indication that the physician could go on. “Sure,” he agreed.

“There’s quite a lot here,” the doctor mused. “I’ll start at the top and work my way down. How does that sound?”

“Whatever works,” Cas told him congenially.

“Right then. You had a minor laceration to the scalp that was stitched up. On your left bicep, the infected gash was cleaned and stitched as well. The blade that caused it narrowly missed your brachial artery, so it was a relatively easy surgery that should heal up nicely. Your right wrist was broken all the way through, but the bone was non-displaced, so it should also heal well as long as you keep it still and elevated when possible and exercise your fingers according to the guidelines of our on-site physical therapist.”

He paused to turn the page. “You have two fractured ribs. The area was injected once with Accuparacin while you were under anesthesia, which should speed up the mending of the bones. You’ll need one to two more injections over the next twelve hours, along with one or two in your wrist to hasten the healing process in that break as well.

“The last major surgery that was done was the removal of the bullet in your leg. It was found quite close to your femur, and you’re lucky it didn’t shatter the bone. The surgeon extracted it without any complications and applied packing to the wound.” He looked up from his clipboard. “All that aside, you’ve also been treated for severe dehydration, and your IV has been infused with Pansine and Amoxiran to manage your pain and speed up the healing of your other cuts and bruises.”

Caspian stared at him incredulously. Apparently he’d been in worse shape than he’d thought. It was a good thing he’d ended up back in the capital or he might not have been able to recover from all of his injuries at all. The thought made him shiver. “Um, thanks,” he managed to blurt after a moment, not sure what else to say.

“You’re welcome, Your Highness,” the doctor bowed. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“Yeah, I’d like a cup of water if you don’t mind.”

“I’ll bring one for you right away,” he replied, turning to exit the room.

As soon as he was gone, Atlas rounded on his son with a concerned expression. “I can’t believe this happened to you… Those terrorists never should have been able to get that close to anyone in our family.” He ground his teeth. “I want you to tell me everything, Caspian. Everything you know that can help me bring those mutinous traitors to justice.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

I threw in the skip and a mention of Aproveset :)

About 3-4 hours passed since the last scene, just for reference.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Upon summoning Atlas’s main caretaker to the palace, it was determined that the king was fine. Dr. Emett assumed he had just worked himself up too much and needed to calm down, so he issued an order for the monarch to take a nap and returned to the hospital to continue his work with other important patients. Meanwhile, Jacob stayed behind to make sure Atlas followed the direction to rest.

At first, Atlas fought him on it, insisting that he needed to stay awake so he would be ready to leave the instant the hospital called to let them know that Caspian was out of surgery. However, with some pushing from the guard, he finally gave in and laid down in his bed, falling asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. Jacob stayed with him even after he passed out, taking up the armchair by the window and scrolling idly through his phone to pass the time. He wasn’t much of a fan of social media, never having the time to keep up with a digital presence when he spent every waking minute working, but he did find an interesting virtual novel to read. Glossing over a few chapters gave him something to do for the next few hours, during which he waited for the signal that it was time to leave the palace.

Around five o’clock, his phone finally chimed with a call from an unknown number, and he lifted the device to his ear. “Hello?” he said, stifling a yawn. Sitting around for so long had made him feel lethargic.

Mr. Curry, His Highness has just been released from the operating room. The surgery was successful. He’s still under the effects of the anesthesia, but you’re welcome to come back if you want to be here when he wakes up.

“Thank you,” Jacob replied, stretching his legs and getting up from the chair. “I’ll be there shortly with King Atlas. He wants to see his son as well.”

There was a brief pause before the nurse asked, Is he… aware of the situation? His Highness is stable, but visually, it’s obvious that he’s been through quite a bit of trauma.

Jacob found the question somewhat amusing. It seemed like everyone and their mother was aware of their king’s infamous temper. He could tell the nurse was worried that he would snap at the sight of the prince in poor condition. “I filled him in already, and I’ll be with him there entire time if possible,” he assured her.

That’s good. He could hear her sigh in relief on the other end of the line. Well, when you get here, head straight to reception. They’ll direct you to Prince Caspian’s room.

“I will, thank you,” Jacob lowered the phone and tapped the button to end the call. Turning toward Atlas’s sleeping figure, he stepped over to the bed. “Your Majesty, I’m sorry to disturb you, but I just received a call from the hospital. The prince is out of surgery.”

--

The ride to the hospital didn’t take long. Atlas was impatient to get there even though Jacob had already told him Caspian wasn’t awake yet, so they took his private hovercar. On the way, the guard received another call from the penitentiary—the first since he’d received word that their newest prisoner was refusing to talk. Apparently the interrogators weren’t quite sure how to approach her because she was unresponsive to everything they had tried. They were reluctant to resort to violence outright, both doubting the effectiveness of the method and hesitant because of her gender, and wanted to know what he thought they should do. He told them that they could do whatever they wanted as long as it was within humane parameters. Of course, their efficacious drug, Aproveset, was mentioned, to which Jacob agreed that if nothing else worked, they were cleared to use it to get results.

Throughout the conversation, Atlas was uncharacteristically distant. Usually, the king didn’t hesitate to give his opinion on a problem, but even though he was within earshot of the entire discussion, he didn’t respond to any of it. By the time Jacob ended the call, he studied his monarch contemplatively. It seemed that until Atlas was able to see his son again, he had no interest in focusing on anything else.

So, when they finally arrived at the hospital, Jacob led him into the building and up to the reception desk as quickly as the ill king could manage. The man behind the counter greeted them by standing and bowing his head, as was customary when one was in the presence of their ruler. “Welcome, Your Majesty,” he said congenially. “Are you here for Prince Caspian?”

“I believe you already know that I am,” Atlas replied impatiently. “Where is his room?”

The receptionist faltered at the hostile edge of the king’s tone, his smile wavering ever so slightly. “Fifth floor, room 509,” he answered, reaching under the desk and retrieving a set of lanyards, which he offered to the two to take. “You’ll need these to access the elevator, since it’s a restricted floor.”

Atlas merely grunted in response as he snatched one of the cords, not bothering to put it on before he turned to limp down the adjacent hallway. Jacob took his as well with a wordless nod to the receptionist and quickly followed the monarch to the elevator. When the metal doors opened, they stepped inside, and the guard swiped the card on the end of his lanyard against the code reader before pressing the button for the fifth floor. A light glowed green, signaling their approved access, and the elevator ascended to the designated level.

As they approached the room where Caspian had been transferred, Jacob could feel the king growing more restless at his side. It wouldn’t be much longer before he was reunited with his only son whom he’d thought he’d lost forever. Keeping Atlas in the corner of his eye, he stepped forward to take the handle of the door in his hand and gave it a twist, pulling the panel open and heading inside.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Something like that. Or we could introduce another female character later who takes an interest in him.

Did you have anything else you wanted to cover from Iris's POV here or is it okay for me to do a short time skip ahead to when Atlas and Jacob go to the hospital to see Cas? I have something else I can write about in between if you need more time before a skip.