Title Wake Up Calls
Fandoms: Tower Prep/Merlin
Characters/Pairings: Gabe, Ian, Arthur/Gwen, Arthur/Merlin
Genre: Gen
Summary: This is more than a dream, young warlock...this is a wake up call.
Spoilers: Slight for the Merlin season 3 finale.
A/N: Written for the Tower Prep Fic Fest on LJ

He knew it was a dream – that was easy enough to tell, after all. All he had to do was look down. If he was wearing pants: real. If he wasn't: dream. It was the first thing he checked whenever he found himself in a bizarre situation. Of course, the giant dragon laughing at him had been a good enough bet that he didn't really have to check…but he still did. Because a dragon was probably on of the least weirdest things that could pop up at Tower Prep.

No pants. Dream. Good.

Except…

"This is more than a dream, young warlock," the Dragon said after he'd finished laughing, though he still sounded amused and that made Gabe bristle. But he was also still a dragon and, well, Gabe didn't want to make him angry. So he waited. And, with another laugh, the Dragon spoke again. "This is a wake up call."

And Gabe sat up in his bed, pulled Senior Guapo tight to his chest, and sat gasping for air as he stared into the darkness of his room. It wasn't the Dragon or the dream or any of that that was terrifying him, though. It was the memories flooding through his mind – memories of hundreds of lives lived over hundreds (thousands?) of years.

He wasn't just Gabe Forest anymore. He was also Merlin. Emrys.

And that meant…

-

Ian Archer tossed and turned in his bed, tangling his sheets around him. He could feel them – could feel the cold air, could hear Gabe's labored breathing – and he was struggling to wake because he needed to be awake not asleep but he couldn't…he couldn't. He was in a room, sitting at a round table, surrounded by people he didn't know and yet knew – beside him…a girl with soft, light brown skin and long curling hair. He knew her, he loved her.

Gwen, he heard himself whisper. Except it wasn't his voice. Except it was. And it wasn't Gwen, it was Suki? It was both.

And Gabe was there. But he wasn't Gabe. He was a tall, skinny boy with ears that stuck out oddly from his head. But he was also Gabe. (And, Ian found, he loved him, too. Different from how he loved Gwen (Suki), but it was there, in the back of his mind as he looked the boy in the eye.)

Ian needed a mirror, he needed to see. He couldn't look at the others – the others he knew but did not know – he had to see himself. He had to know.

He pulled out the sword that hung at his side and looked at himself in the blade. He was Ian. Ian Archer. But he was also.

"Arthur!"

Ian sat up. Gabe was sitting on his bed, holding his shoulders. He'd been shaking him, trying to wake him. Now he looked relieved and he smiled a goofy smile and Ian tried to reconcile this Gabe with the Gabe (Merlin) from his dream…but it all seemed so far away now.

Except…

"You called me Arthur," Ian said, his voice much more accusatory than he'd meant it to be.

Gabe looked away. "You are," he said. "And I'm…"

"Merlin."

"We have to go see Suki and CJ," Gabe said.

Ian sighed. "I know," he said. "I know."

Because CJ hadn't been there. She hadn't been at the table. She was the reason they were there, though. They'd been fighting against their friend, and Ian knew Gabe was afraid it would happen again.