Author's Note: For the record, I still ship Merlin/Arthur and Gwen/Morgana. It feels a little like a betrayal each time I write a Morgana/Merlin. And I don't know where they keep coming from! I just keep getting ideas for drabbles and then remember that I am apparently unable to keep the word count down to a proper 100, so they grow. It's very early in the morning and I have not gone to bed, so please ignore any spelling mistakes/gross plot holes/a lot of "How the hell is this supposed to make sense?"ness.
Destiny
Merlin forgets one thing the Dragon tells him, for Kilgharrah knows it is Merlin's destiny not to remember it until the end.
They meet in the thick of battle, two sorcerers caught in a little package of time no one will miss. They are both covered in blood from the dead and wounded, and soot from the fires burning all over the field.
Everything is still around them, the silence deafening after the screams and clang of metal against metal of the battle.
Morgana steps forward (graceful, almost dancer-like, even now) and touches his cheek gently. For a moment that lasts forever they stare into each other's eyes, old feelings and thoughts swirling wildly, filling the silence around them.
But then she strokes his cheek, just once, and says "Do not weep, Merlin. For, is this not what you have chosen?"
She dances back to her place, torn skirt flowing around her legs like water, and turns back to face him. "Do not weep, Merlin, when the world you have created shatters around you," she says darkly, and time starts again.
Later, after his world has been destroyed by his actions and ignorance, Merlin faces Morgana once again. She looks at him, gaze heavy and measuring, and he meets her eyes, trying to convey without words his question. Where did I go wrong?
Her mouth twists bitterly, and she answers aloud. "When the fires of Irdisholas burned, when you learnt how to stop the Knights of Medhir, everything hung in the balance. When you poisoned me to stop my sister, you chose this end for your world."
He lowers his gaze from her eyes.
"No," she says harshly. "Look, Merlin, look back at your world. Look at me. See what you have created."
He looks back across the water, because he can't look at her, not yet, and sees columns of smoke still rising from the field of battle, carrying the stench of death. He looks down, to the bottom of the boat, to where Arthur's body lies, terribly still in death.
He sobs, and finally, finally, he braves looking at Morgana once more. Her face is impassive as she watches Merlin. He holds her gaze, but does not say anything, for he knows that anything he could possibly say is written clear across his face for her to read.
It is when the boat bumps against land and stills magically, when Merlin watches Morgana get up and step onto Avalon without another word, that the Last Dragon's spell is undone, and he remembers their long ago conversation.
"Until you unite with the witch Morgana, Albion cannot be whole. If you turn her against you, it can only end with the ruin of Albion and your destiny. Albion must have Morgana to prosper. She is the sole thing your destiny balances on. Choose the wrong side, estrange her forever, and watch your loved ones die. Choose the other side, and watch Albion be united, her people prosper, and magic come back to the land.
"If you choose the wrong side your spirit can never rest until it chooses as it was meant to. Again and again you will live, and again and again you will be given the choice, until you fulfill your destiny.
"Until you allow yourself to love the lady Morgana, Albion cannot exist in its foretold entirety. Your love shall bind the land together, but its absence will make the land burn itself to ashes."
But Merlin knows it is too late to right his wrongs this time. He knows he has failed.
Fin