Notes: I got inspired by some summary I saw here on and I thought I'd make a Merlin timetravel fic myself. I'll update this as much as I can but I've already written a lot so I think I'll definitely finish it. Please leave feedback if you want, I'd really appreciate it. Helps me grow as a writer. This fic is mostly gen but with Morgana/Arthur undertones (we'll see how it develops).
Prologue
He was tired and weary. Death was made for old men with tired hearts. As he was lying on the battlefield, knowing that this was the end, he couldn't be angry. Not with the man who was standing over him, holding his own sword to kill him with it. The sign of his worthiness. The promised king. It had been his destiny to make Camelot better. Instead he had failed.
Just as the metal was about to pierce his flesh, he saw a figure emerge from the mists, cloaked in mystery. Mordred could not yet see her, but Arthur could see her approaching as he awaited his death. Somehow Mordred's deathly blow seemed to linger and it did not take long for Arthur to realise that he was frozen. Even though the shape that approached him did not seem to want him harm, Arthur felt a terror unlike anything else had ever felt in his entire life. Magic had always scared him. Perhaps it was a legacy of his father but ever since he had learned of the circumstances of his own birth, he could not help but feel helpless in its presence.
"Arthur Pendragon," the voice said - not speaking but speaking in his mind. The voice was cold and hollow but somehow soothing. "Do not fear me. I am Viviane and I am here to help."
Even though his lips weren't moving, he could hear his own questions in his mind being asked to this ghostly phantom that had so mysteriously appeared in the midst of blood and war. "Why do you want to help me? After everything I have done to your people?
"The balance is wrong. Things were not supposed to happen this way. You have a choice to stop everything that you have yet lived from coming to pass. But this is not an easy task. You have to be prepared for the responsibility this means."
"How? How will I do that?" If he truly had the chance to change everything from coming to pass it wasn't much of a choice. There wasn't a choice. What he had to do was clear as day. Things could not end this way.
"You'll have to go back in time, Arthur Pendragon. There isn't a lot of magic in me left but I have enough to send you back. All I ask in return is that you give me your word that you will stop Uther from prosecuting my kind and that you save Morgana."
The last promise had an eery feel to it. "Why Morgana? What do you want with her?"
"Just as you are promised to the people of Camelot to be their next great king, Morgana is promised to us. To save us. It is important you do not let her fall into this darkness. Do you understand?"
He looked at her terrifying form, for a moment at a loss for words. Slowly, however, his head began to nod and he could immediately feel the weight of this promise on his shoulders. There was perhaps a time in his life where he would have taken promises lightly but it was not today, not this close to death. His honour was the only thing he had left.
What happened next was difficult to describe, but it felt as though he was lowered into a cold pool of water without getting wet and before he knew it, a warm sensation spread through his body before everything turned black.
He was going back. To save everyone.
