REWRITING DESTINY

Summary: Time-Travel, AU. Morgana dies at the end of season4. In the after life - in Avalon - she sees her mother and Vivienne explains to her everything that would have happened if she had survived and everything that should have happened if Morgana had remained faithful to her love for Arthur. Morgana's spirit goes back in time to the moment when Merlin first arrives in Camelot. She intends to change whatever went wrong that pulled her and Arthur apart because she knows that she was always supposed to be his Queen.

Pairings: Arthur/Morgana - ArMor -. A little Morgana/Lancelot, Morgana/Gwaine. Merlin/Gwen at first but Lancelot/Gwen eventually.

Disclaimer: I'll say this only once. I don't own 'Merlin' nor do I make money by writing this story.

Another ArMor fanfiction, hope you like the idea!

19/06/2014: Answer to Guest's review 'I like this first chapter, this story has so much potential. And I love time travel fics!
The only thing that bothered me is that it feels like you are putting too much fault in Morgana, and yes she did many bad things but not all of it is her fault, there are many others who had much more to do with her into darkness.': I know what you mean, I know Morgana didn't just wake up one day and decided to be evil. I know she has been betrayed by the people closest to her, especially Merlin. I know that the idea of Uther being her father was unberable for her. But I needed for her to take responsability for her actions. I needed someone to show her the errors of her way, so to say. Because no matter what other people had done to her, she chose to be that way. She continued to blame everything and everyone else around her but never once did she actually take responsability for her actions. If she had continued to hate and blame Merlin, or Arthur or Gwen, she would never have tried to change. She needed to see that - no matter the actions of the other people around her - she actually decided for herself her path. Nobody actually forced her into it. I'm not saying that she's completely to blame but I can't say that she's completely blameless either. I love Morgana, don't get me wrong, she's and always has been my favorite character in Merlin, but that doesn't mean that I'm blind to her faults.

Prologue

"Morgana was always kind. And just. What happened to make her so twisted?"

(Arthur Pendragon - Merlin)

Morgana could feel her life slipping out of her together with the blood, the wound at her hip throbbing painfully with each breath she took. It was really the end now. She knew she was dying. No more fighting for her rightful place as Queen, she had failed. She looked one last time at the forest around her and instead of the rage that she had often felt lately, she felt at peace, finally. She closed her eyes one last time and before dying, one face appeared behind her eyelids, Arthur's.

She woke up in a place surrounded by mist, every contour around her difficult to distinguish. She stood up and noticed with astonishment that she wasn't wearing the black dress she had started to wear lately but she had on one of her old dresses that she used to wear when she was still the Lady of Camelot, the King's ward. Even her hair were not the messy nest they had become lately, but were silky and styled in the usual waves, cascading perfectly behind her back. She looked around her curiously and then turned her head sharply around when she heard a voice calling her name.

"Morgana." The woman now in front of her was wearing an elegant purple dress and she shared a peculiar resemblance with her. Morgana immediately realized who she was.

"Mother." She breathed, astonished.

"Hello, my child." Vivienne smiled at her warmly.

"Where am I?" Morgana asked, still confused and surprised.

"In Avalon, the place where every person who has magic - or has been born of magic - ends up after death." Her mother answered her with a placid smile.

"So, I am really dead." Morgana expected to feel anger or disappointment but there were none.

"Yes. But this doesn't mean that it's the end for you. You have tasks to accomplish still before you can rest."

"What tasks?" Morgana asked, even more bewildered. Her mother didn't answer her question though, but she indicated with an hand a basin that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of them. "Look inside dear. Look and see what would have happened had you survived." Her mother's tone was suddenly cold and angry. Morgana looked fearfully at her for a second but then did as she was told. The images inside the basin were horrifying. She looked at herself becoming more and more deranged until she gasped in astonishment when she saw Arthur and Mordred - an older Mordred - fighting to the death. Morgana didn't expect to feel this afraid, after all she had tried to kill Arthur more than once, the last time just before she had been killed. And yet, she couldn't deny the fact that she was scared for him. Arthur Pendragon, her brother and her greatest weakness. She looked at Arthur, wounded to death, falling against a rock, exhausted and Merlin hovering over him. Then she saw herself, calling out 'Hello Emrys' and she gasped in astonishment. Merlin and Emrys were one and the same, how was it possible? She heard herself speaking to Arthur, mocking him and obviously happy that he was dying and Arthur replying that he had never meant her any harm. Morgana realized suddenly that she was crying and when she saw Merlin use Excalibur against her, she was almost relieved. Suddenly the images inside the basin disappeared and Morgana turned to look at her mother.

"This is what you wanted Morgana?" Her mother's voice was still cold and now had a tone of disappointment in there too.

"No, what I've always wanted was magic to be used freely. No more executions, no more fear for people with magic like me. I never wanted any of this."

"But this is what would have happened had you survived that wound, had the white dragon saved you..."

"Then it's best that I'm dead..."

"No, child. None of this was supposed to happen. Too many things, too many...people got in the way of your destiny and Arthur's..."

"What does it mean?" Morgana couldn't help but ask, her voice trembling.

"I know you love him still, that you have always loved him. And finding out that he was your brother was the last straw for you, wasn't it? It completely devastated you. But there are things that you don't know, things that you should have known. If only someone had told you, everything would be different.

"Arthur is the prophesized King that will unite the land of Albion. He's the only one that will be able to bring magic back to Camelot, the one that will allow magic users to roam freely. But you and Arthur were supposed to reign together. You were supposed to be his Queen. Without you, there will never be an Albion."

"But me and Arthur...we're siblings, we're both Uther's children." Morgana had still difficulty said this out loud. She would never see Arthur as a brother. He had always been so much more than that for her. But it obviously hadn't been the same for him since he had so easily fallen in love with Gwen.

"That is what Uther believed. You were taken in by Uther because he believed you to be his daughter. You were always supposed to grow up in Camelot with Arthur. But you're not brother and sister. You are mine and Gorlois' daughter."

Morgana couldn't help but feel conflicted at that revelation. Part of her was happy that her feelings for Arthur were not wrong, had never been wrong, but the other part of her was deeply wounded by this because now it was too late to do anything about that. "Why are you telling me this? It's too late. I'm dead, and even if I weren't, I did too many terrible things to him to ever be forgiven by him. And I have even less possibility to ever be loved by him now. He's in love with Gwen..." She spat the name like it was poison. "My sweet and innocent maid." She finished sarcastically.

"It's only your fault if Arthur fell in love with Gwen." Her mother answered her calmly.

"What?" She demanded angrily.

"If you had trusted him when you found out you had magic...if you hadn't started to pull away from him, if you had only given him a little bit of encouragement, he would have never fallen in love with Guinevere. And anyway, even now that you are his enemy, part of him still can't stop loving you. And not as a brother loves a sister. Part of him is still in love with you. But you're right...now it's too late. At least, in this timeline..."

"In this timeline?" Morgana asked, confused once again.

"You can change everything, going back in time to the moment Merlin first came to Camelot. But you need to know a lot of things first or you'll become consumed by hate again."

"What kind of things? And it's really possible to go back in time?"

"It's possible for you since you are dead. It's not possible for the living...But, as I was saying, there are things you need to know first. First of all your hatred towards Merlin. You started hating him when he poisoned you. You never understood why he did what he did. Well, I'll tell you. Merlin had realized that the spell put on Camelot's inhabitants was linked to you. It's the reason why you were the only one not affected by the enchantment. Morgause did that spell and the only way to break the spell was to kill you. Merlin had to choose between your life and the lives of everyone else in Camelot. You would have done the same in his position, once upon a time at least..."

"What? No, it's not possible. Morgause would have never done something like this to me. She was my sister, she would have never betrayed me like that."

"And yet she did. Morgause is not who you think she is. She loved you but she manipulated you since the first moment she talked to you. Morgause is not your sister. She's not my daughter or Gorlois'."

"What? No..." Morgana felt weak at the weight of these revelations.

"Yes, Morgana. Morgause grew up in the House of Gorlois but she was not my daughter. Morgause's family were druids. During the Great Purge, her mother and father were killed but me and Gorlois were able to save her. She was only two years old at the time. So, we took her in and she grew up as our daughter until we were forced to convince Gaius to bring her out of Camelot to save her life once again. Morgause knew she was not our daughter, we never hid anything from her. It's why she hated Uther so much and she had her reasons of course. Uther killed her entire family. But she used you in her quest for revenge against him. She convinced you that she was the only family you had left but that's not the truth. Arthur and Gwen and Merlin were your family. You lost sight of that, the moment you found out you had magic."

Morgana felt like she couldn't breathe. Morgause, the only person who she had thought she could trust, was the one who had actually betrayed her the most. But still, she couldn't believe that Arthur, or Gwen would have ever accepted her since she had magic. "Arthur hates magic as much as Uther does. He would have never accepted me. And Gwen is too afraid, she would have never accepted me either. And Merlin had magic but he didn't tell me. He made me believe that I was alone. Having magic was tearing me apart and he did nothing, NOTHING!" Now she could feel the rage once again consuming her, and the hurt.

"Merlin was afraid too. And he trusted Gaius when he told Merlin not to tell you anything. And he always had the Great Dragon whispering in his ear, telling him that you couldn't be trusted. And at the end, you proved him right..."

"The Great Dragon?" Morgana knew that her mother was talking about the dragon that Uther had kept prisoner for twenty years but she couldn't understand what it had to do with anything.

"When Merlin first arrived in Camelot, the Great Dragon called him and told him that he shared a great destiny with Arthur and that he was the only one who could turn Arthur in the King Albion needed. The Great Dragon wasn't completely wrong since Merlin saved Arthur's life numerous times. However, the dragon didn't know that Arthur's destiny was intertwined with yours. Your destiny could go two different ways. The first is the one you have chosen for yourself, the path that brought your doom and that would have brought Arthur and Albion's doom with it. The one the dragon was convinced was the only path for you. But there's another path possible for you, the one where you become Arthur's Queen. With you by his side, Arthur would have finally realized that magic is not evil but that the important thing is the person who uses it. Because of your actions, Arthur right now is still convinced that all magic is evil, that it was magic that corrupted your soul. But we both know it's not like that at all. If you had told Arthur that you had magic, he would have understood that magic can be used for good and that would have been the first step to create an Albion where magic is used without fear of persecution. But you didn't trust him."

Morgana turned her green eyes to the ground, ashamed, at those words. She knew her mother was right. She should have trusted Arthur because she knew that Arthur would have never done anything to harm her. Arthur was a good man, much better than his father could ever hope to be.

"You're right mother. Arthur is a good man and I know he could have never wished me harm. And I understand that Merlin followed Gaius and the Dragon's words and he didn't trust me either, but it was because he was afraid and didn't know what the best course of action was. I understand now. I know that I hated Gwen because I felt like she had stolen everything that I felt belong to me, Arthur's love, the throne of Camelot. But I know it was not her fault. I brought everything that happened to myself. Nobody else is at fault for my actions." Morgana stopped talking for a second. "But I would never forgive Uther for what he did. If I go back in time, don't ask me to stop hating him because I can't."

"You have every right to hate him, Morgana. Nobody is asking you to forgive him. But you can't kill him. Arthur would never forgive you for that. Uther will have his just punishment at the end, but you can't and won't do anything about that. You can't be responsible for his death again, or everything that we're trying to avoid will just happen again. Your love for Arthur MUST be stronger than your hate towards Uther or it will all be in vain."

Morgana took a deep breath but she knew that her mother was right. She had no intention of repeating the same mistakes. She loved Arthur, she had always loved him. And she knew perfectly well that if she did something against his father - even if Arthur loved her - he would never be able to forgive her. She needed to think about the future she could have with him. A future where they would reign together and magic was free. That was the most important thing, not her hatred towards Uther. She could have everything she had ever wanted, she just needed to do things right this time around.

"Yes, I know. I love Arthur and I know that this time, nothing will prevent us from being together. But what about Uther's belief that I'm his daughter? Since he thinks that me and Arthur are related, he would never allow us to get married." Morgana asked then, remembering this particular obstacle.

"And that's why you need to make him forget the fact that he believes you to be his daughter. He will treat you the same way he had always done because - even if Uther has many faults and he did horrible things - he had always cared for you. He will not stop seeing you as a daughter even if he stopped believing you are his."

"I understand." Morgana nodded, eager now to go back in time and make things right.

"Morgana, I have to warn you though. You won't be able to remember numerous events that happened, things that have endangered Camelot during the years. Some things need to happen to transform Arthur from the arrogant Prince he was at the beginning to the just King he is now. Some things cannot be avoided. But you will be able to remember most of this conversation and your magic and what will happen if you continued towards the path you were in. You will forget that you have ever hated Merlin or Gwen or Arthur and part of your hatred towards Uther will disappear too. In short, you will go back to be the girl you were when Merlin first arrived in Camelot, but you will know what you have to do to make things right this time around." Morgana nodded at that, telling her mother without words that she did understand and her mother continued. "Trust and have faith in your love for Arthur and his love for you, that's the most important thing if you want to succeed, if you want a peaceful Albion where magic is used freely."

"I understand mother and I'm ready, whatever it takes." Morgana said with determination.

"Well, then. Close your eyes..." Were the last words she heard before feeling a powerful gust of wind all around her and then she felt no more.