Disclaimer: Merlin tv series & Repo! Genetic Opera not owned by me - fic done purely for fun!

2056 AD: At the Opera, Tonight

It was getting difficult for Nathan to keep the tenuous grip of his conciousness in his dying hours. He did not fear death for there he saw Marni, gracefully holding out her arms, beckoning him to her. He could feel the tears tracking down his face, joyful at the sight of his beloved wife but when he looked at his crying daughter beside him, he felt his heart break a little more.

In the blur of wetness in his eyes, Nathan thought he saw Shilo's face shift into someone else. A beauty with lustruous dark hair like Marni's and skin as pale as Shilo's but with a healthier glow that his daughter could never attain with poison in her veins.

He did not know this woman but he knows that he should. She wasn't his daughter but he knows that he loved her like his own.

-"My Lord."-

Before he could utter a familiar word Morgana, Shilo's image superimposed itself on the woman's and he could hear his daughter's young voice again, crying. "Dad I will not leave you here. You will live."

-"My Lord."-

Nathan coughed, feeling his lungs further collapse from the bullet wound. "But you've already saved me, dear."

-"You are a blessing to me Morgana. You are the daughter I've never had. Your counsel is as invaluable as your friendship and your love."-

Nathan gave Shilo a weak smile as he laboriously lifted his hand to touch his daughter's face. "Go and change the world for me."

-"Without you I cannot be a king that this land can deserve."-

"Shilo, you're the world to me."

-"Please forgive me Morgana."-

2056 AD: Genetic Emancipation

Shilo knew it would not be easy living free on her own but she knew she had to try. After Rotti Largo's death, his empire crumbled, leaving the GeneCo investors fleeing and the economy sinking. It took a whole lot of effort from the Largo siblings to keep the once-powerful company afloat when they were not busy fighting over the shares and indulging in their individual vices.

Jobs were more difficult to come by and all Shilo was able to get with her age and no working experience was a stacking job at a convenience store.

In between her long shifts, she would study, planning on continuing her distant correspondence studies that she stopped halfway following the mess with the Largo family and her father, and in between those study hours, her mind would wander and she would find herself escaping the loneliness of her house in search for bugs.

Her body was still wrecked with pain, now even more so since the body's system was just getting used to the absence of poison and counter-poison that her father would feed her on systematic intervals.

One night when the pain was particularly bad, she stumbled out of her home and right into the arms of the Graverobber who after seeing Shilo's waxen and sweaty complexion, relented to dose her with a shot of Zydrate.

The haze of pain eased and she felt her mind freeing and body floating, barely aware and caring that the Graverobber was carrying her away from the dark and dingy alleyway.

465 AD: A Stranger In The Woods

The queen of Camelot was wont for quail in her child bearing months and the king, eager to please his beloved wife and be part even in a small form for the sustenance of the babe in her body set out with a small retinue to the woods, not far from the castle.

The beaters walked through the tall grass and began to hit the ground with their sticks to flush out their prey while the king and his hunters kept a keen eye on their surroundings for quick footed feathered creatures. The king saw a quick movement two feet in front of him and he carefully took aim before swiftly letting his arrow go to shot down the target.

His intent to see if his arrow has caught anything was interrupted when he heard one of his men cry out in surprise, "Over here! Over here! I found something!"

The king and the rest of his men ran towards one of the beaters and when he was close, he demanded, "What? What did you find?"

"It's not a something, sire," one of his men answered, perplexed, "It's a someone. A girl."

465 AD: Shylo

He took the girl to the castle to be cared for by his royal physician, certain that she was a noble with her clean skin and good quality, although odd, attire. When the girl opened her eyes to the sight of him, she wept and called him daddy - father, she amended when he only gave her a confused look at the word.

She called herself Shylo and he instantly felt some sort of close kinship with her. She was a stranger, yet familiar and when she looked and smiled at him and talked to him about small mundane things, he could feel the love flowing from her that he felt strangely humbled by the affection. It was different than the love he felt from his people because this was more intimate and very quickly he felt his affection for her becoming more paternal and obsessively protective.

His wife was amused when he began to dote on her like a daughter and for all he knows, the queen was probably imagining how more terrible he would be with a baby to care for.

The witch commented to him that Shylo was a puzzle but all he cared to hear from the witch was that she could attain for him a son that was everyone thought was never going to be conceived.

The day his wife died, all he wanted to hear from the witch then were her screams as he burned her at the stake.

But the witch escaped and he took his wrath onto his people, condemning those who practice any form of magic.

"You cannot do this, father!" Shylo protested as soon as she heard of the executions.

"I must. The kingdom is to be purged from all that goes against the laws of nature. You've seen what it has done to the queen," the king coldly reminded her.

Damn her, but the heat in her eyes only grew brighter. "Yes, but... not all is evil. Killing innocent people - it's monstrous!"

"So be it!" he snapped.

-"So let the father die! And let the monster rise!"-

Shylo stepped back, disappointment and distress clear on her pale face, before she turned and ran away.

He refused to call her back but when night fell and she still has not appeared, his anger turned to worry and he ordered his people comb the castle and then the rest of kingdom for her but to no avail. All that was left of her was her pendant with a small painting of herself tucked within and years later, when his son, Arthur, chanced to see him gaze at it one day and asked who the girl in the pendant was, all he could tell his boy was that she was a daughter lost, caught in the maelstorm of the Purge when Arthur was still a baby.

"Can Morgana be lost too?"

He stared at his son in puzzlement. "Why would you say that?"

Arthur pouted. "She's horrid. She said she beat me in yesterday's swordfight but it's all trickery!"

The king chuckled. "Trickery? Let's see then, shall we?"

The prince grinned and ran out, planning to force Morgana for another sword fight and reveal her dishonesty in front of his father.

The king watched his son leave and for a moment he could see the image of Shylo walking away from him, her dress and dark hair fluttering with her haste to escape from the room. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, placed the pendant back into his drawer and went in search for Arthur and Morgana.

Shylo was his past but Arthur and Morgana are in the present and then they undoubtedly will be his future and Camelot's.

2056 AD: Zydrate Anatomy, Part II

Shilo's eyes fluttered open and slowly her vision cleared to the pale visage of the Graverobber who was looking at her in expectance.

"How do you feel, kid?" the man asked her, helping Shilo when she made a move to sit up.

"Where-?"

"We're at your house. It's pretty easy to guess where you're living after the first time we met."

Shilo looked thoughtful for a few moments before she rounded at the Graverobber with incredulity. "You broke in?!"

The man gave a careless shrug. Ignoring Shilo's annoyed expression, he asked again, "Feel better now?"

"Yeah, thanks...."

And then Shilo was looking around for something, the girl feeling her neck before she started to pat and rummage through the folds of her clothes and bedsheets.

"What?"

"My necklace. I had it when-"

"... what?"

"A dream. I had a dream. I was happy, and then..."

"... and then..?"

A few seconds of pause before she sighed. "Nothing. Just a dream by Zydrate, that's all."

The Graverobber gave a thoughtful hum as he tucked the still lethargic Shilo back into bed before he left, locking the doors hurriedly after him. The night, after all, was still young and with the inconsistencies in grave security with the management change in GeneCo, harvesting for Zydrate was made more easier for him. And with thought in mind, he disappeared into the night.

-end

A/N: Anthony S. Head! I thought I'd never love you more but then you started singing in a rock opera - ILU!