Disclaimer: Merlin tv series & Opapatika movie not mine. This fic is made for fun, not for monetary profit.

Chapter 1: Becoming: Arthur


It was a rainy night but Arthur paid no heed to the vicious drops falling from the sky, the cold water hitting every available surface noisily as if the night storm wanted to drown every other sound except its own.

In the mansion however, the sound of the rain was muted and it eased the young man's mind a little to be away from the noise as he walked across the foyer, past the rooms and into the study room where his father was waiting for him, standing in front of the fireplace, the light from the burning fire burnishing his silhoutte into a golden colour.

As soon as Arthur reached a respectable distance from his father, Uther held out a gun for him to take and said, "You know what to do."

After a brief hesitation, the young man took the weapon, its cold metal seeping into his already cold bones as he traced the runes carved on it's side with an idle yet curious finger. Arthur recognised the pattern - the Oran Mor that which maintains life after death. Reincarnation.

He looked up at Uther then, the man who has raised him to be strong, brave and courageous, but the man's eyes were cold and Arthur wondered if he have ever seen any warmth in them before other than when it was aimed at his ailing mother.

In reply to his father's earlier words, Arthur gave a nod of acquiesce, placed the nuzzle of the gun against his forehead and pulled the trigger.


The druids believe that life continues after death, that the soul is immortal and that after one dies, the person goes on to live in the otherworld where good and evil does not exist since those matters of the heart and mind that makes a person human is severed from the soul.

However, there are some souls that has not been cut off completely from their human nature and hence became abomination of life.

Uther has always detested magics of any kind when his wife was ailed by an unnatural sickness and thus made it his life long passion to rid the world of these abominations - these dead people who come back to life not only with their feelings, wants and needs still intact but also their senses altered into something otherwordly.

These abominations, the dra'iocht, has been wiped out one by one by the Camelot Unit until the strongest remained but even after all his successes with the minor dra'iochts, Uther was still left wanting by Arthur human weaknesses.

When one is attacked by fire, one fights back with fire. And when one wants to defeat a Dra'iocht, one sends a dra'iocht to fight in your stead. And Arthur who has always been hungry for his father's love and approval took a mere two days to decide to become the hunting dog that Uther wanted.

That night, Arthur found himself staring down at his old body which was crumpled in a heap, the blood seeping out of the head and oozing onto the floorboards.

"Welcome back Arthur," Uther said and when Arthur looked up, he saw Uther giving him a warm smile. "My son."