A/N: Hi everyone, so this is my first ever merlin fanfic. If any of you have read my being human fanfic, then you know that I'm terrible at updating. I promise that I will try as hard as possible to keep up with some sort of regular update, but being a first year uni student, still settling in, I can't say how often new chapters will be written. Sorry about any grammar/spelling mistakes, constructive criticism only please, oh and in case it wasn't obvious- I don't own merlin.
Enjoy and Review!
Chapter One:
The once and future king opened the doors of the court sorcerers chambers and was greeted with an unusual sight; a solemn looking Merlin.
That look, he thought, had no place upon his best friend's features, not for a long while. It was odd to see Merlin Emrys- court sorcerer and first advisor to the king- without a smile on his face these days. Magic had been legal for almost a decade, Albion was united, and the days in which the citadel was under attack were few and far between. But here was Merlin, quiet at his desk with his head in his hands, a frown on his face and a faraway look in his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Arthur asked, smirking when Merlin jumped from being caught off guard. "You've got that look".
"What look?" Merlin asked, intrigued now that he was distracted.
"The look that says your about to tell me something unpleasant" Arthur sighed.
Merlin smirked before waving the king fully into the room with a flick of his wrist.
"I need your help," Merlin began when Arthur was finally seated. "You and I need to travel somewhere and you aren't going to like it."
"Care to tell me where were headed?" Arthur enquired.
"Sorry, I can't tell you that."
"Care to explain why?"
"Sorry, can't tell you that either"
"Well what can you tell me, Merlin" Arthur asked, verging between exasperation and amusement.
"I can tell you that the fate of Albion depends on it, and I can tell you that it will be dangerous to the point of stupidity, but that we're almost guaranteed to come out of it alive."
"No change there then." Arthur quipped, his tone then becoming serious, "When do we leave?" the trust for his friend's judgement evident in his voice.
"Immediately, but I've sent someone already to inform Gwen and the knights." Merlin smiled, before rising and gesturing for Arthur to do the same.
He walked towards his work space and collected four vials, placing two of them in a hidden pocket safely in his cloak. He then handed one to Arthur, and kept the other for himself.
"We need to drink a sip of these each, it's called a 'Polyjuice potion'. It works by changing our appearance so that we go unrecognised, and then I can start the spell to transport us there."
"Okay" Arthur replied, eyeing the bottle warily, no doubt remembering the array of foul tastes that Merlin had him try during his many potion 'experiments' over the years (the worst of which once turned him purple for three days).
They simultaneously uncorked the bottles and held them to their lips, consuming a small intake of the potion. Then, after mere seconds they slowly started to change.
Merlin, Arthur noted, appeared to get shorter, though in actual fact, he himself had grown about a foot in height, while Merlin only shrunk a few inches. The short stubble that they both maintained gradually grew to short beards, and their hair changed colour so that Arthur's was shades darker settling at a dark brown, and Merlin's slightly lighter, verging on silver. Their facial featured themselves shifted, so that their noses grew shorter and more pointed, and their eyes became narrower, and their lips thinner. When it had finished, they examined each other before chuckling at their altered images.
"I'll never get tired of that" Merlin laughed joyfully, which Arthur correctly interpreted as 'I'll never get tired of magic'.
"Me neither" Arthur agreed. "What's next?"
"Now for the transportation spell" merlin said while pulling out a piece of parchment folded neatly from the inside of his jacket.
"Bedyrne ús! Astýre ús þanonweard!"
Their vision blurred and they closed their eyes against the onslaught of images that seemed to pass them.
Their heads were pounding. They opened their eyes and once orientated, Arthur realised where they were.
"It worked!" Merlin cheered, a grin stretched on his face.
"Worked? We're still in Camelot! This is the just outside the lower town! Are you really so lazy merlin that you needed a spell to take us here... And hang on a minute! Worked!? So there was a chance you could have mucked the spell up and we what... wound up as toads!?" Arthur exclaimed, his arms waving exaggeratedly.
"Oh, calm down you great prat, when have you ever known me to turn you into a toad... Donkey maybe, but now you're just exaggerating." Merlin smirked at Arthur's glare. "Besides, that's not the point, what do you notice?" Merlin asked, serious once more.
"I don't know, less people? It's what? Midday and its practically empty? Hang on... Midday!? It was evening just five minutes ago... What have you done?"
"You'll understand soon enough" merlin said, walking towards the town, silently urging Arthur to follow.
When they finally reached the castle, Arthur did a double take at the picture before him. In the courtyard, were King Arthur and his bumbling manservant merlin themselves, looking ten years younger and walking towards the steps entering the castle.
"What on earth... Seriously merlin, what did you do? Were what? In the past!?" Arthur started wide eyed at their young counterparts.
"Exactly. Time travel." Merlin answered, a proud tone leaking from his voice both at himself having achieved such a difficult spell with ease, and at Arthur having worked it out for himself and maintaining fairly calm... considering.
"WHAT THE HELL MERLIN!" Arthur whispered furiously, keeping his voice low so to avoid startling people wandering close by.
So much for calm, merlin thought wryly. "We're almost ten years in the past, because a few days from now, my magic is going to be revealed and younger you will have a hissy fit," merlin replied, both having accepted what happened and long since moved on.
"A hissy fit!? Really merlin? Gwaine might call me 'princess' but you realise I'm not actually a little girl, don't you?" They smirked at one another.
Merlin hesitated.
"After you found out... things were obviously a little bleak, I never told you this but I was close to giving up all hope and leaving Camelot for good, but I had some visitors of the... magical kind" merlin noted Arthur's solemn then turned curious expression.
"You mean to tell me that after the... Incident, you were visited by our future selves who were able to tell you that despite everything, it would be worth it?"
"Exactly," merlin replied "but the futures not set in stone, hence why it's dangerous. We need to convince this merlin not to give up his destiny, while making sure nothing can sway Arthur's opinion on his stance against magic."
"Okay... So where do we start?" Arthur asked.
"We follow merlin."
They followed the younger Merlin and Arthur at a safe distance, until they saw the two separate, Arthur heading towards him room and merlin towards the kitchens. Their attempt to look inconspicuous however, failed. No sooner had they turned the next corner, they found themselves face to face with the younger merlin, who was stood there looking expectantly at them in the middle of the corridor.
"Why are you following me?" he asked impatiently.
Arthur looked towards his friend, quietly muttering under his breath, "how did 'you' notice us and yet 'I' didn't?"
"because you're a prat." He whispered back without missing a beat and ignoring Arthur's returned glare, before turning once more to the younger merlin who was staring at them expectantly while doing a spectacular impression of Gaius' raised eyebrow.
"Well?" he asked.
The older merlin took a deep breath and breathed a sigh before deciding to follow on with the truth.
"We're here to help you. We need to inform you of something that will happen soon, so that you can prepare for it." Merlin replied
"Look, if you're after an audience with the king you'll have to go through the long route of speaking to the council, I'm not his messenger."
"Emrys. This is a message for you and you alone." Merlin answered, watching how his younger self paled at the use of his Druidic name.
"I don't know who you mean, but I'm not him" Merlin replied taking a step backwards, ignoring the snort that came from Arthur's disguised self.
"I'm not mistaken, and we know you have magic." Merlin continued, waiting for merlin's reaction.
If possible, he paled further before taking several more steps backwards away from the duo. Arthur hastily grabbed his forearm, trying to prevent him from running, ignoring the older Merlin's warning look.
Merlin, feeling threatened, shot out a spell, his eyes turned gold, and the duo were slammed backwards by an invisible force, and landed in heap on the floor.
He turned and ran.
"Quick! After him!" Merlin shouted from where he was sprawled on the floor. Arthur quickly got up to his feet, and faster than merlin, he chased the other man down through several corridors and stairways until he managed to tackle him and drag him by the arm into an empty room. He slammed the door behind them and turned to his young friend who was watching him warily, hand outstretched.
"Merlin! You buffoon! We aren't here to hurt you! You can be such a clot pole sometimes!" Arthur barked, frustrated and forgetting that he was currently supposed to play the role of someone else.
Merlin stilled, lowering his hand, a quizzical expression emerging on his face.
"Arthur?"
Arthur looked stunned. How did he guess who I am?
"You see, I told you your acting was terrible, though I can see trying to fool me was a mistake, I am after all very clever." a voice drifted in from the doorway. Arthur and merlin turned their heads to see the older merlin, still in disguise appear smug with his arms folded in front of him.
"Wait a minute..." the younger merlin once again finding his voice. "Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going on!? You both sound like... but you can't be...that's impossible."
"It's not impossible, it's magic," merlin replied, walking into the room fully and once again closing the door behind him. He then grabbed the potions from his pocket and handed one to Arthur, both taking a small drop of the antidote for the disguise to fade.
Merlin stared, gob-smacked, as he watched their appearance change back to his and Arthur's future selves. He took in the minor subtle differences; the lines around the eyes, the clean shaven beards and the slightly greying hair. But what amazed him the most were the easy going, free and open expressions that took up both their faces, the smiles that traced their lips and the blatant trust radiating towards one another, despite the glaringly obvious fact that this Arthur must know about his magic.
"You're from the future." Merlin said, estimating approximately a decade between them.
"Correct." His future-self replied, a sympathetic smile curling the corners of his mouth. "I know this is strange, but I also know you've seen stranger, so I'm positive you can handle what we have to tell you, and once we've said all we have to say we can try and answer any questions. Though I can't promise we can give you all the answers."
"Okay." Merlin said reluctantly, his eyes dissecting the two.
Arthur ushered them over to some chairs in the corner of the room, and they made themselves comfortable, ready for what would be a very long conversation.
A/N: So what did you all think? If I get lots of interest for this story, I'll try and put it higher on my priorities list, so please review :)
p.s. the spell used (which was formerly written as 'insert spell here') is the teleportation spell Morgause used in the fires of idirsholas
- lolello
