Author's Note: I've read a couple of dark!Merlin fics and I feel like they're really cool because they're normally the most epic BAMF! Ones out there. So, this is my attempt at a dark!Merlin fic. It's possible that Merlin will eventually see the light, but we'll see. I know that I'm already in the middle of a couple of fics, but I'm close to finishing one, so I figured I'd throw this one out there too. Might as well, eh? If there is anything that you want me to change, or put in here, let me know and I'll consider it. Read, review, and enjoy!
Warning: This is slightly AU where Agravaine never integrated himself into court and Lancelot never died. Morgana's still evil and Mordred's still evil and is teamed up with Morgana. That's the only changes relevant to this chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin. At all. Sadly
"Arthur!" The king heard Merlin shout his name, reaching towards him with his hand out as if that would help now. His manservant was leaning precariously over the edge of the cliff watching with horror written across his face as Arthur fell. Quite frankly, the king was a little miffed. This is not the way he was supposed to die. He was either going to be killed in battle or live a long, wonderful life with his beautiful wife, Gweneviere, dying only when old age caught up to him. He wasn't supposed to fall off a cliff when the earth had given way beneath him, turning to sand. He wasn't supposed to just splatter on the ground, dead and desecrated.
Then the unthinkable happened. Arthur watched as Merlin's eyes turned liquid gold and felt as the air cushioned around him. Shocked, Arthur felt around him, patting the layer of air and finding that it was completely solid. The king looked back up at Merlin, at the sorcerer, and stood on his little patch of nothingness. He saw the sorcerer gulp slightly, a wild look in his eyes. He saw as the man he once knew lifted his hand towards himself, pulling Arthur's little air cloud with it.
He climbed onto the cliff, slapping the sorcerer's hand away when offered. The former manservant looked affronted, as if he had a right to be offended! Arthur stalked away and ran his hands through his golden hair. Everything was so backwards, so broken. Merlin couldn't be a sorcerer! He wasn't an evil person! Arthur would know. But then, the evidence was all there. He had seen it with his own eyes.
"Arthur?" Merlin asked tentatively, not shouting this time, but somehow sounding more urgent.
Arthur rounded on him, snarling into what had seemed to be an innocent face, "Did you really think it would work?" Merlin stared at him, confused. Arthur growled and continued, "Don't play dumb with me! Did you really think that by getting close to me I would think you weren't evil? Did you really think that you could pull the earth from beneath my feet and then save me, having me miraculously change my views on magic? Who do you think I am? It doesn't count as saving me when you're the one who causes me to be in the life threatening situation in the first place!"
The king finally let the sorcerer have a word in, during which he just spewed more lies about not causing him to fall and saving him because he was his friend. He even had the audacity to claim that he only used his magic for Arthur! What kind of fool did he take him for?
Arthur cut his former friend's spiel off by raising his hand. He thought wryly to himself that it was only now that the traitor decided to listen to orders. Arthur grabbed Merlin's arm, feeling bile rise up in his throat at the thought that he was touching something so evil. Then, quick as a flash, he pulled out his dagger and swung at the evil sorcerer.
The man ducked out of the way, trying to pull from himself from Arthur's grip. His eyes were wide with fear and Arthur just spat out, "Monster!" He swung his dagger again, managing to cut a gash across one side of the sorcerer's face. Then he felt himself flying backwards, propelled by magic.
For a moment, Arthur just sat there in shock. He knew that Merlin was evil. He had to be since he was a sorcerer, but for some reason, he never thought that Merlin would fight back. He never thought that he would attack him.
When he stood up and looked at the sorcerer, he noticed that he seemed shocked too. He looked at his hand as if it weren't a part of him. Then the traitor looked up at Arthur, his wide blue eyes terrified, blinking out blood from his cut. Arthur distantly realized that Merlin hadn't even screamed. Then, the sorcerer held his hand in front of him, as if he were warding Arthur off. That's when it really hit Arthur that his manservant was evil. Completely, irrevocably evil.
Arthur raised his head and panted slightly. He knew that he wouldn't be able to take Merlin down with just a dagger, so he glared at the man and ground out, "You are hereby banished from Camelot. If anyone sees you, they are under orders to kill you on sight and bring your body back to the castle for a reward. If anyone is found to be harboring you, they will suffer the same consequences. You are officially the top of the list of fugitives to be found. I would recommend that you run and run far away, but I want to see you dead, so I won't. This is not over, sorcerer."
Even though Merlin was still holding his hand up in defense, Arthur saw the look of pure, broken sadness that crossed his face when Arthur spit out the word sorcerer.
Arthur finished recounting his tale to the Round Table. With him were Gwen, Gaius, Gwaine, Lancelot, Leon, Percival, and Elyan. Arthur had to force himself not to think the sorcerer's name. He saw varying emotions flicking across his closest friends faces.
On Gwen's he could see sadness that Merlin was gone and disbelief that he would lie to them. Gaius showed shock and he looked heartbroken, but Arthur figured that he already knew about the magic. Gwaine looked furious and seemed like he was trying to find the right words to say without killing someone in the process. Lancelot had his mouth open and looked as if he had been physically hurt. Leon seemed as if he was having trouble reconciling the image of the smiling manservant with someone capable of hurting his king. Percival sat silent, digesting the news and keeping his expression neutral. Elyan kept glancing around at the others, unsure of what to do.
Arthur looked down for a moment and then said, "I know that this is hard to accept, but we must. Merlin is a sorcerer and he is evil. We-,"
He was interrupted by Gaius, who choked out, "He's not a sorcerer."
Arthur grimaced in sympathy. He had thought that Gaius had known, but evidently Merlin was even better at keeping secrets than he thought. He was about to say something when Gaius said, in a clearer voice, "You don't understand, sire. He has magic, yes, but he's not a sorcerer. He's a warlock. That means that he was born with magic."
The king grimaced again, not even for a second believing the physician's words, "Oh Gaius, I'm so sorry. It seems as if he's enchanted you. We'll try to see if we can find a way to break the enchantment, but we might not ever be able to. I'm so sorry that he did this to you. That he did this to all of us." Arthur directed his last sentence at the entire group.
He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Lancelot was shaking his head viciously, and he asked tentatively, "Lancelot?"
Lance looked up at him and Arthur reeled back, shocked. He had never seen such a look of anger on the normally calm man's face. When he spoke, his words were lined with venom, "You should be sorry! But not for the reason you think. Merlin gave up everything for you! Everything! And you just stab him in the back, or rather, face, the first chance you get. How could you do that to him? Do you even know how many times he's saved you?"
Arthur frowned at him, "It seems as if Merlin enchanted more people than I thought. Does anyone else share Lancelot and Gaius' views?" He paused and everyone shook their heads no, even Gwaine. Then he help up his hand, "Wait. Does this mean that you knew of his magic, Lance?"
Lancelot nodded tersely and Arthur sighed, giving the two aforementioned men looks of remorse, "That must be it, then. You discovered he was practicing that evil trade and he enchanted both of you to keep you under his thumb and believing in his innocence. Hopefully if he travels far enough away the spell will wear off."
The bravest and noblest of knights rounded on Gwaine, practically growling at the drunkard, "How can you think that death is what Merlin deserves? He was like a brother to you! He is your best friend!"
Gwaine clenched his jaw, grounding out, "The lies that he told us was my best friend. Sorcerers are evil. They killed my father and, eventually, they killed my mother and my sisters. Anyone who practices that art will be corrupted. I… believe that men with magic can start out innocent, but they will always be corrupted. Always." He finished in a whisper.
Lancelot stared at him with wide eyes, leaning away from the man as if he had punched him. The knight turned to others and the table and saw the same opinions mirrored there. He reeled back, knocking his chair over in the process. He stumbled away from the table, going even farther back when others got up to help him. Lancelot glared at them, "You're all heartless. You are betraying the best of us and you'll all be sorry when he's been gone for a while. You'll see how much you needed him. And I'll be there by his side to tell him what you did. I'll make sure that he never comes back and that he gets a better group of friends than you traitors!"
Arthur glanced at Gwaine and Percival, translating his intent through his eyes. They both nodded to him solemnly. As one, the three men lunged at Lancelot, pinning his arms behind his back and taking his sword away from him. When the king was sure that they had the enchanted knight held, he told the two that they were to lock him in the dungeons until the enchantment wore off. Then Arthur turned to Gaius warily, "Will the same precautions need be taken with you? Will you try to run off and force us to lock you in your chambers, or will you fight against the spell and stay with us, where you belong?" He distantly heard Gwen sobbing behind him, but he just continued to stare stonily at the Court Physician.
Gaius said slowly, as if it were difficult to get out, "I will stay here, sire." Arthur sagged in relief and turned to embrace his wife, hugging her close to him and running his fingers through her hair.
He turned his head slightly to Leon, saying, "Up until the time that Lancelot breaks free from his enchantment, I want someone to be with Gaius at all times, awake mind you. Switch the duty out to the Knights of the Round Table." He turned to Gaius, "It's not that I don't trust you, but that I believe that the spell might overtake you. This is to keep you safe."
The old man nodded solemnly and said, still speaking slowly, "Thank you, sire." Arthur nodded back to him in response, murmuring soothing words to his beautiful wife.
Away in the forest, Merlin huddled on the ground in a cave. The nights were cold and he spelled a fire into existence. With a wave of his hand, a mirror appeared in front of him. He opened his bag of medical supplies and started to clean the wound and to seal it up with stitches. He bemoaned silently to himself that he wasn't any better at healing.
Cleaning the wound and cringing at the pain caused by the disinfectant, Merlin realized that he should have treated it earlier. He was lucky it hadn't become infected yet. The truth was that he was just so worried about Arthur alone in the woods that he had created a blue orb to follow him, watching his movements. When the king reached the city, Merlin shrunk that orb and let it follow him. He heard his king tell the story of what happened and he saw all of his friends' responses. They broke his heart. Lancelot spoke the truth and Merlin realized that he would never forgive them.
Even now, sitting in the dirt and stitching up his wound, looking at the disfigurement gashed across his face, Merlin made the decision to screw destiny. If this was what he would have to go through for it to happen, then he didn't want it to happen. He was done with someone else pulling the strings in his life! He would travel the world and learn more about magic. Maybe someday he'd return to Camelot and see how it fared, but he didn't think that he would ever be calm enough to do it.
Then Merlin thought of everyone who he'd miss. Lancelot and Gaius were loyal to him and always would be, but eventually they would realize that he wouldn't come back and they'd pretend to 'break free of the spell'. He couldn't begrudge them that and were actually hoping they would realize it soon so they could get on with their lives. The young warlock would miss all of the other servants, of course and all of the people in the lower town. He would desperately miss his mother, but he didn't dare visit her lest Arthur tracked him down to that spot. Merlin wondered idly what the other servants and the lower townsfolk would think of him being a warlock, or sorcerer as Arthur would surely tell it.
As Merlin thought of everyone he had lost in a split second decision to save his king and best friend, his eyes turned gold and the mirror was smashed to pieces. He wept for a while and eventually recreated the mirror, hanging it on the wall of the cave. He decided that he would camp out in that place for as long as it took for his face to heal or for people to find him. Whichever came first. When he looked back into the mirror, he realized that his eyes had stayed molten gold. There was no going back now.
Morgana laughed delightedly, actually clapping her hands with joy. Mordred smiled his cold, shark's smile next to her and Agravaine gave his signature coy smirk from behind her.
That went so much better than she thought. At first, Morgana had thought that she would get Arthur alone (with just his manservant for company, of course, since the rat went everywhere with him) and then cause his untimely demise. He would be too far away from the court for Emrys to save him. Although the death she chose for him wasn't in front of an audience like she'd always dreamed for it to be, it would still be agonizing and painful.
But then Merlin had saved the king with magic! It was almost too good to be true. The king's manservant was Emrys! The clumsy, meddling oaf was the greatest warlock to ever walk the earth. He was her supposed doom. And then it got even better when Arthur banished him from Camelot and tried to kill him! Emrys would never try to save the man now. Arthur was as good as dead without his magical helper and Morgana had an open path to the throne! How could this day get any better?
Then she whispered a spell to watch him tell the others of Merlin's 'treachery' and her smiled grew even wider. Her brother had managed to imprison his most loyal and best knight and had managed to alienate Gaius, who knew of everything magical. Morgana was actually a little disappointed that after all that she had worked for it was going to be this easy to take the throne. Oh well, she could have fun afterwards. Tomorrow she would initiate her plans and soon, all of Camelot would be hers for the taking.
Author's Note: I'm sorry to all the Gwaine fans out there (I mean, I'm a huge one too), but I had to have Lance stay at the castle and not go gallivanting off with Merlin, so I couldn't have anyone help him escape and he has much better chances of escape if someone other than an old physician could help him. Anyway, yeah, I really want Gwaine to be beautiful and totally accept Merlin's magic, but alas, no.