AN – I feel like I owe you all an explanation. It has been a long time since I posted the first chapter of this story and a lot has changed since then. My love for Merlin has not faded but since it has ended I have moved on to other fandoms and I no longer have the inspiration to write this story any more. I'm very sorry, but I feel that if I continue it will not live up to any expectations and I definitely don't want that.
However, I already had the plot of this story laid out and I really do love it. So below I have written a synopsis of the plot and how it was going to end. I hope that is better than nothing. Also, although I probably don't deserve it, I would love it if you reviewed one last time. It would mean the world to me!
I will no longer be writing for Merlin but I have loved my time in this fandom and will never forget it or all of the wonderful people in it.
So thank you, all of you.
Cloud-dee
Careful What You Wish For:
Arthur wakes up to find that he has a new servant and Merlin is nowhere to be found. As he progresses through the day he finds that things are drastically different around Camelot. He can find none of his knights except Leon, and even he is different, polite to Arthur but cold, with none of the friendship Arthur is used to, and what seems like fear in his eyes.
Gwen is married to the local blacksmith, Lancelot, who came to Camelot with dreams of becoming a knight that never came true. She also seems to be a little scared of Arthur and doesn't act anything like the woman he knew.
He also finds he has lots of people locked in his dungeons, pending for execution. Horrified, he runs to Gaius to find out what is going on. Gaius seems confused as to what Arthur is talking about and assures him nothing in Camelot has changed. When Arthur asks where Merlin is he replies that he has no idea who Merlin is. When Arthur asks about Hunith however he replies that the last he heard she was in Ealdor and he knows she has a son, who may have been called Merlin.
Arthur immediately rides out to Ealdor but all he finds when he gets there are blackened ruins. The whole town has been destroyed.
In the town over, while trying to get an explanation as to what happened, Arthur finds Gwaine. Gwaine has no idea who he is, but tells him the whole town was destroyed by bandits years ago when they couldn't pay the bandit's fees. Everyone perished.
Arthur also questions him about the king of Camelot and discovers his rule in this reality is a tyrannical one. His father was assassinated when Arthur was very young, by rebels aided by the Lady Morgana. The prince was too young to rule properly but insisted anyway. He started a second Great Purge as revenge for his father's death, and continued executing anyone suspected of sorcery to this day. He was briefly married to the princess Elena, but executed her when he discovered she was a Shee.
The people of Camelot live in fear of him and his sister Morgana's forces are strong with the families of people he has wronged or executed.
Even through all this, no-one know who Merlin is or where to find him. Throughout their conversation, Arthur gains Gwaine's trust (Gwaine still does not know who he is) and Gwaine promises to take him to the druids, who may be able to help him find his friend.
When Arthur gets to the druid camp they immediately know who he is and turn on him. But their leader senses something differently and under an honesty potion he tells them of how the world is wrong and he is not who they think he is. They agree it help him, and send him to see the most powerful of their kind, who they call Emrys.
When he goes to the place Emrys is said to be, he meets a dark, hooded figure. He begs help from the stranger to find out what has happened and how to fix it, but the man refuses him because he has murdered so many of his kind.
As Arthur begs him to change his mind, his hood slips and Arthur sees the man is Merlin.
He convinces Emrys to trust him by telling him things only Merlin, or someone very close to him, would know. In exchange Emrys tells him of how his mother sent him away to be raised by the druids, and how she was killed along with his village in a bandit attack years ago, that he was too late to stop.
He also tells Arthur that it sounds like some very powerful magic has caused a shift in the universe. Then he takes him to see the dragon.
The Great Dragon is distrustful of Arthur, but agrees to look at his memories to find out what happened to cause the change in the world. He sees Arthur finding out about Merlin and rejecting him (which Arthur himself had forgotten) and about the wish. He tells all this to Emrys, who looks on Arthur with contempt.
Arthur begs their help on the basis that he and Merlin are friends, but Emrys refuses, telling him that everything that happened in their friendship happened with Merlin. Because Emrys was raised without those memoires, he and Merlin essentially are different people and therefore he has no connection with Arthur at all.
Hopeless, Arthur returns to Camelot, only to find that Morgana's armies are preparing to attack. He rides out to meet her to speak, and when she lists all the atrocities he has allowed and the pain he has caused, he can't bring himself to fight back, believing maybe in this world she is right.
Just as she is about to strike him down, Emrys appears, stopping her. She allows him to speak as a neutral party as there is no resentment between them and she respects his power. He convinces her to give him three days with Arthur before she attacks. After that, he will help her destroy Camelot.
Arthur is horrified but Emrys explains he is going to try and find a way to help Arthur get back to his own world.
Emrys and Arthur go on a quest for answers and finally find what really happened. The wish, which was fuelled by hate and anger, attracted the attention of the Fae. They granted it and the world shifted to a world where Arthur and Merlin had never met. (They also find out that Arthur should have died multiple times without Merlin but the wish was to find out what Arthur's life would have been like without Merlin and it is hard to teach a lesson to a corpse)
Arthur pleads for them to reverse their work but they tell him it is impossible. When he asks them why, they explain that he is nowhere near powerful enough to make a wish they could grant. All the pain and anger that changed the world was backed up by powerful magic and it was not cast by him.
The one who made the wish was Merlin.
Merlin had been so angry at Arthur's words that he had wished Arthur could really see what his life would have been like without him. Only the wish caster has the power to make another wish to reverse the first, so the only one that could fix it is Emrys.
Arthur is thrilled but Emrys refuses. He points out that not everything about thins world is bad. Once Arthur is overthrow, magic will be free and his people can live in peace. Morgana is not yet so twisted by hate that she has descended into madness and she may actually make a good queen. Freya is waiting for Emrys back at the druid camp and in Arthur's world, she is long dead. Lancelot and Gwen are happy together and back in Arthur's world there was only pain and betrayal.
Finally, Emrys points out that if he chooses to change the world back to the way it was, he will die. If the world goes back, it will be Merlin there who he views as a different person from himself.
Because they were raised in entirety different ways, they are different people with different memories, and to go back to the way it was will mean that the Emrys of this world will never have even existed. He will be replaced by a man he doesn't even know.
Arthur tries to convince him that Emrys and Merlin are the same man but Emrys points out that it is experiences that shape who we grow up to be (just like how Arthur was such a different man without the influence of Merlin) and he and Merlin share only how they were born, no who they each grew up to be.
Arthur can't argue but begs Emrys to change his mind, promising he will free magic as soon as he returns home. The second great purge will never have happened and he will make sure all magic users will live in peace in his kingdom. He promises he will remember Emrys and the lesson he has been taught here, but that the old world, though flawed, was still better.
Emrys realises that Arthur is right and for the sake of the hundreds who have been lost in this world, he has to change it back and save them, even if it means losing himself. He turns to the Fae and reverses his wish. As the world dissolves around them, he turns to Arthur, looks him straight in the eye and says.
"Remember Emrys, Arthur. Remember me."
Arthur wakes up and the first thing he sees is Merlin's worried face. Arthur had fallen from his horse as he rode away and was knocked unconscious. To Merlin's surprise, Arthur pulls him into a crushing hug and promises him that he will never be arrested and that magic will be free throughout the land.
When Merlin questions his sudden change of heart he replies,
"You are my friend Merlin and I trust you. And I made a promise. A promise to someone that I used to know."
The end
