Just some procrastination before I get back to Ambrosia's Return (which I swear I'm working on!). Anyway enjoy and any response is welcome!

To say Merlin, Prince Arthur's manservant, was calm as he approached the throne room would be a lie. To say that he was upset would be a definite understatement. To say the Prince's manservant was fuming with rage and was making even the Knights of Camelot to tremble a tiny bit would be a touch more accurate.

Merlin couldn't care in the slightest as he threw open the doors of the throne room open with strength he didn't even know he possessed. "You know," By this point the court all crowded around the chained up Gwen were looking at him. "I'm a patient guy, witch. I could put up with the continued threats on my life, plans to take over Camelot, attempts to kill various Pendragons and chaining me up in the forest to be serket food. So yeah I'm pretty patient just waiting for you to slip up and expose yourself but then you just had to interfere with Arthur and Gwen!" The whole court's jaws had by now hit the floor at his tirade, including the King and the Prince, but the blue eyed warlock just continued with eyes only for one green eyed witch. "Two of my best friends. Well Arthur only on his better days which are actually very rare. And they were your friends too once upon a time! I made one mistake-"

Merlin had succeeded in his attempt to rile the Lady Morgana up as she rose from her chair and fixed her hateful glare on the manservant as she growled back. "Mistake? Don't you dare call that a mistake!"

No one moved as they all processed the whole situation and the Lady Morgana's fury. "I was trying to save Camelot! And what were you doing?"

"I had no idea what was happening Merlin. I was terrified!" She stormed towards him past her former friend in chains (Gwen was still stranded there) but Merlin held his ground.

"Yet you still stayed with her. The woman who cast the damn spell in the first place and was ready to kill your friends and family."

Morgana scoffed. "She was the only one who was there for me."

"No." Merlin replied clearly with his voice shaking in anger. "You only saw it that way because you were so angry at me."

"Well you poisoned me!" Morgana's screeched and for a moment you could hear a pin drop in the deafening silence that followed.

"It was the only way." Merlin's eyes blazed with something nobody could put their finger on. "To break an enchantment so powerful the vessel had to be destroyed. Your life wasn't some simple bargaining tool it was the source of the sleeping spell."

Morgana's eyes widened and she looked at her enemy begging for that to be a lie. "My sister would never do that to me. She would never betray me so."

"What has your sister ever done for you Morgana? She took you away from everyone you loved and trained you to be her puppet. I bet she didn't even teach you one healing spell or 'good' spell" He looked at her- face filled with sincerity as he uttered the next sentence. "There was a time. Once before all this happened, that I loved you from afar but then the warnings came and you were taken by darkness."

Morgana looked at her enemy trying to see a trick in the honesty clearly shown in every muscle of his body. "And I loved you. You were the sweet boy who brought me flowers, helped me and understood me when I was terrified. But now we stand on opposite sides of a war."

"It doesn't have to be like this." Merlin stroked her cheek lightly with his pale hand. "We can find a way if that's what you truly want."

There was silence as the entire court watched the manservant tenderly caress the king's ward. Then Gaius came in panting. "Oh Merlin!"

Merlin snapped out of his whatever the hell it was with Morgana and turned to his mentor. "Yes Gaius?"

"What have you done?" He sighed looking at his own ward and the King's.

"I may or may not have exposed Morgana, the poisoning and revealed my love for the woman who's attempted to kill me a few times. And now I'm anxiously awaiting her decision as to whether or not she'd going to come back to our side and leave Morgause or not."

Gaius looked as if he was about to faint. "Oh only that! And the whole court had to be gathered for this because?"

Merlin shrugged. "I was angry it couldn't wait." He turned his attention back to the woman he loved. "So?"

"Wait a minute!" Arthur interrupted, having finally found his voice. "Morgause and Morgana are related?"

"Half-sisters." Gaius told the prince.

"And Morgana's a witch?"

At this Gaius looked at his ward sharply. "Merlin!"

"What it just kind of slipped out when I was talking about Morgause!"

"You should know by now to be more careful."

"Um Gaius do you realise that I'm kind of in the middle of something here? And also that we're in front of the entire court before you blab any of my secrets."

Arthur snorted at his manservant. "Merlin what possible secrets could you have?" Both Merlin and Gaius ignored him.

Morgana opened her mouth cautiously. "You just exposed my magic in front of the whole court of Camelot."

"Yeah sorry about that. But if it's any consolation no guards have seized you and the pyre isn't being built yet."

"And you honestly expect me to trust you and side with you now?"

"Yeah well we have Gaius and his library as well as-" Gaius coughed here to tell Merlin to be careful as he was pretty sure Merlin was about to say 'a dragon'. "-other stuff. Plus you could still be friends with Gwen and Arthur. And you wouldn't have to skulk about in woods and get up at lord knows what hour to go for a walk."

"Oh you know about those…" Morgana looked slightly embarrassed which took everyone by surprise.

"Well you do have a tendency to wear bright red or purple making you quite easy to follow."

"Hey I didn't expect you to get suspicious and start following me!"

Gaius chuckled a bit earning the attention of the witch and warlock. "Don't be offended Merlin has a habit of following people." Merlin opened his mouth to protest when Gaius began to reel them off. "Aulfric, Guinhilda," Gaius shuddered at the name causing Merlin to laugh as he remembered the little scene in the vaults, "Morgana, the troll, me, Arthur-"

"Hey when did you follow me?" Arthur demanded, glaring at his manservant.

"Erm the Labyrinth of Gedref incident." Merlin replied with a flush. "And yes Gaius we get the point: I follow people." Yet again he turned to Morgana. "Can you please answer before we're interrupted again?"

"You're keeping secrets." She fixed her jade eyes to his sapphire. "How can I trust you?"

"If you come to our side I'll tell you every single one." He smiled at her goofily. "But even I'm not stupid enough to hand my enemy ways of defeating me."

"Stupid enough to fall for an enemy though." Gaius muttered and Arthur, who heard as he was the one closest to the old man, couldn't help but smirk.

"So you want me to ally myself with you despite the fact that you won't tell me everything?"

"That's correct." Merlin suddenly looked a bit worried. "And you may kill me for some of those things."

Morgana raised a thin eyebrow. "What could I possibly-" She broke off and looked in horror at the man. "No!"

"Great now you've done it Merlin!"

"Morgana I promise there's a very good explanation for all of this."

Morgana, wide eyed, suddenly burst into giggles. "You never were in love with Gwen were you?"

Whilst everyone else looked puzzled (and Gwen mildly affronted) Merlin burst into laughter at the shared remembrance. "Oh you have no idea what a shock you gave me!"

"Can somebody please explain what's going on?" Asked an irate King, who'd amazingly sat on his throne silently throughout the entire proceedings.

Morgana stopped laughing. "You promise there's a good explanation?" At Merlin's hasty nod she sighed. "Then I better work with you after all."

As soon as she said those words there was an almighty rumble and a few screams as the Great Dragon landed in the courtyard looking impatient. "MERLIN!"

Said warlock groaned. "Damn Kilgharrah is going to be pissed!"

The entirety of Camelot were staring at the dragon in complete and utter fear when Merlin ran into the courtyard. "Yes! I'm here what is it?"

Everyone (including the court who'd followed the warlock out eagerly) watched as the thin man addressed the dragon with blunt annoyance. "You have caused a great shift today young warlock it concerns the witch."

"Honestly!" Merlin threw his arms up in the air as the crowd watched bemused and very terrified at the fire breathing monstrosity. "What the hell Kilgharrah I have only just talked to her and you've already found out! What are you watching me or something?"

To the crowd it looked like the Great Dragon was smirking slightly and apparently seemed to be talking amiably to the prince's manservant. "I had a feeling you would do something stupid like this Merlin. Did I not give you plenty of warnings about the witch and her destiny? She'll never truly change Merlin she is destined to bring the end of Albion and there's nothing that you can do to stop that."

Morgana was trembling as she knew she was the topic of conversation whereas Merlin just looked quite angry at the dragon's words. "Destiny can change. Everyone always has a choice and Morgana will make the right one if it kills me." The dragon looked as if he was about to say something but Merlin's hand flew up and silenced him, much to everyone's astonishment. "Yes I am perfectly aware that it may by your reckoning but seriously destiny is a tricky business and has many interpretations. In about five minutes after you've flown away disgruntled I shall probably be condemned to death and then have to decide if I should just let myself die a martyr or escape and come back later when these lot finally realise they'd be dead without me many times over. It's quite a hard choice really but I know what I'm destined to do but I have a choice in the way I do it and we all make mistakes. Morgana has the choice right now about whether she's going to stay with Morgause and attempt to kill her father or join me and hope that we don't both get executed before I can help create Albion. Yes her most likely destiny is that I'm eventually going to kill her to stop her from killing everyone else in a huge final battle that will end up with Arthur dead from somebody else but that it's not the only path for her so but out and let me deal with my own destiny Kilgharrah! Do you know how stressful it is anyway with you not monitoring me and yelling into my head every five seconds? In fact it's not just you you're all as bad as each other what with Arthur incessant demands, constant magical attacks and the fact that every time something vaguely magical comes into Camelot I get a headache! I don't even remember the last time I got a full night's sleep. And seriously what with magic being banned on penalty of death you'd think druids and others sorcerers would just stay away but alas for my poor head they're not and I have to keep dealing with them."

As he'd spoken (well ranted) the crowd had shrunk back a bit from the usually jovial man and had stayed absolutely silent including the royal family. Only Gaius was letting out the occasional groan and shaking his head. "It is your destiny you warlock stop denying and whining about it. As for the witch I reserve judgement until she proves me wrong and then I shall turn her into ash." With that the dragon nodded to his Dragonlord and then flew away leaving said Dragonlord with the astonished occupants of Camelot.

"Well personally I think that could have gone a lot worse. So when's the execution?" But at that moment neither Uthur nor Arthur Pendragon seemed able to say anything other than 'wha…?'

Merlin, upon seeing the sorry state of the Camelotian royalty, decided to go and polish Arthur's armour.

Fin. Hope you enjoyed and please review! No plan to really advance on this so yeah, ta ra.