Warning: Full of slashy goodness. If you don't like that, I'm curious as to why you clicked on it.

Rated T for violence and mild swearing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin. If I did there would be some script alterations lol

Thanks to rencarnatedfreya, mesodontask, socalrose, momentshaveyou and Dramastar-Mel for reviewing my little story with especcially big thanks to Enchantress123 who has decided to give this pairing a go.

Enjoy

-Blue

Chapter 2: The Magic Words

Merlin woke up in the back of a van, his bag slung next to him. It was dark but there was a crack in the door that allowed light in. He feel van moving. Around him were various pieces of oddly shaped metal; mostly sword hilts and round disks with leather strips attached to one side. One particular oddity kept his gaze: a blue cylinder. He was about to watch out for it when the whole world leaned to the left.

Merlin fell head over heels into the side of the van and everything else fell onto him including his bag which contained two kilos of homework. His bruises and cuts flared with indignation and his head hurt like someone was trying to break out of his head with a hammer. And if this crazy driving kept up he was going to be sick.

"Arthur, careful. That kid has had a bad enough day today. Do you really think going at top speed is going to make him feel any better?"

Merlin wondered who the girl in the front was talking about. Then he remembered. He looked down to see that his tattered shirt had been replaced with a cooler looking black t-shirt. Like his rescuers had been wearing.

"Relax, Morgana, he's probably still fast asleep. As long as he doesn't ruin everything by waking up he'll be fine." Merlin groaned. His life was in the hands of this guy! He was as good as dead.

"You hear something?"

"Yes, the sound of you getting worked up over nothing. Look, Mordred disappeared and the kid is fine whoever he is. We just take him back to base for a healing session and then we take him back to his home. Simple."

"Arthur, you know as well as I do that Nimueh doesn't just let Mordred out for no reason. And there's something about this guy- "

"Yeah, he's cute and you want him to hang around longer so you can get your claws into him." Merlin blushed in the darkness.

"And you don't?"

"Not really. The sooner he's gone the better." Merlin felt hurt. What did this guy know anyway? He sounded like a royal prat.

"It's not just that he's cute. And he is even if you're too big of a moron to admit it." Morgana paused. "I can't explain it. There's something about him which makes me think that we're missing some vital information."

"Have you had any visions about this guy?" asked Arthur the prat. Wait! Merlin lent against the wall that separated himself from the drivers. Had he heard that right? Visions? Oh god, he had been kidnapped by crazy people.

"Maybe. They've all been a bit fuzzy lately, like something important needs to happen first."

"I think that you're over complicating things here. Still if you think something's wrong we could keep him a bit longer-"

"Is this your way of admitting that I'm right? Or that he's cute? Or both?" Merlin could actually feel the smugness radiating through the wall. Suddenly all he could hear was pop music. It took him a while to figure out that Arthur had turned up the radio.

Merlin lent back against the wall and braced himself against it using his long legs to hold his body in place. He felt like crap and was sure that if Arthur kept driving at the pace he was now; Merlin was going to be sick all over the weird metal things.

He picked up the strange cylinder from before and tossed it from hand to hand. He thought back to the strange incident with Mordred. The fear and the pain that he had felt. The strange energy barrier that shimmered like a heat haze. Mordred's amber eyes. The look on the blonde boy's face as he saw Merlin and Mordred. With a jolt, Merlin realised that blonde kid must have be the Arthur that was driving the van.

Maybe they weren't crazy. And even if they were it might be worth sticking around to see Arthur again.

At that precise moment, the van swerved so hard that Merlin had to fight to keep his lunch where it was. He thought about banging against the wall to remind them they had a living thing in the back but decided against it. He looked down at the pale blue cylinder in his hands.

"I wonder what you do," he said out loud and as if these were the magic words the van screeched to a violent stop and the loud music shut off. Merlin shot forward into the doors in a tight forward roll, through the doors and onto the pavement. His backpack slipped out next to him along with one of the sword hilts and two of the round discs.

Merlin hissed in pain. Grabbing his backpack, he thought about making a run for it when he heard Arthur say something. His blood froze.

"Get out of the way, Mordred." Merlin looked around. Conveniently on his left was a dark alleyway where he could escape. Merlin didn't even think about. Crawling on his belly over the tarmac, he hid under the van, peeking out from underneath the shadows to see two pairs of familiar black sneakers in front of him.

Behind them were the black leather school shoes of Mordred and two other pairs of feet that he couldn't account for. It could be his minions from school but Merlin couldn't be sure.

"Now, now Arthur, let's be reasonable," Mordred purred, the poster boy for evil boy genii. "All we want is the boy. Then we'll leave your little organisation in peace."

There wasn't even a slight pause before Morgana said, "And when we say no?"

"Then we take him by force." Merlin felt his whole body go rigid with rage. What had he done to this little brat to make him hate him so much?

Then there was the sound of the back doors to the van being opened. Both Arthur and Morgana gasped in surprise. One pair of sneakers disappeared.

"Mordred, you evil little prick." That was definitely Morgana at the front of the van which meant that it must have been Arthur who had tried to rush to his rescue. A gigantic pair of brown loafers ran over to Mordred.

"Sir, he's gone."

There was a flare of electricity in the air, the kind of feeling that people get before a storm comes and rips of the roofs of houses. "What do you mean that he gone?" It was amazing how much malice Mordred managed to put into his voice. Every hair on Merlin's body reached for the sky.

Arthur's shoes reappeared. "Too bad," said Arthur. "I guess you're going to have to leave now." Arthur sounded so smug that Merlin started to feel a little annoyed with him. Surely egging on the enemy wasn't the smartest thing to do in this situation!

"Where is he?" shouted Mordred, sounding like an eight year old brat, "I found him first. He's mine. What have you done with him?"

"First of all," began Morgana coolly, "Stop shouting, it's giving me a headache. And even if we knew where he was do you think we would give him to you because you said you saw him first. What are you: a pre-schooler?" Merlin was torn between slapping her and punching the air. Mordred had just got verbally thrown but shouldn't both of these guys know better than to antagonise this kid?

"Give him to me."

"Well since you asked so nicely."

"Give! Him! To! Me!"

"More shouting. Fantastic. Look we don't have him. We don't know where he is. So now you can just leave or we're going to have to move you." There was a flash of blue light. Merlin couldn't see what was going on but Mordred and his party didn't budge an inch. A shaft of blue light crept down from the top of the van. Merlin guessed that the light was coming from something that Arthur was holding. Merlin's first thought was that it must be a light sabre. Then it stopped growing and finished with a point making it look like the tip of a sword. A light sabre sword!

Whoever Arthur and Morgana were at least they had some cool tech.

Mordred didn't seem to agree.

"How pitiful," he said, "Do you really think that your little sword can withstand my level of magic?" Nobody said anything. Merlin broke out into a sweat. He had to do something. But what?

Merlin edged his way out from under the van and stood up in the shadow of the van. No one had seen him. The scene before him was so surreal he was tempted to pinch himself.

Mordred was surrounded by a group of large hulking men who looked like they ate Mordred's for breakfast. They were all grinning eagerly at the two people in front of the van. Although Merlin could only see the back of the van people, they were both obviously very good looking by any ones standards. Arthur (who Merlin knew because of his almost luminous blonde hair) was holding up the blue light sabre sword that Merlin had seen before. Morgana was holding a cylinder identical to the one Merlin had seen. Before his eyes, it lengthened swirling into a bright blue staff covered in blue lines that pulsed slightly with the same energy that Arthur's sword had been made of.

Mordred's eyes glowed amber and the air around them turned into a violent wind threatening to pick Merlin up like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Lightning cracked over head. Merlin's hands flew to the wooden bracelet that his mother had given him when he was six. It was a sort of good luck charm and he needed it to help him think.

Then something terrible happened: the bracelet's string that was holding it together snapped with a loud twang. Suddenly everyone's eyes were on Merlin. Mordred's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"So you have no idea where he is, huh?" Merlin looked to Morgana and Arthur for help. Both were staring at him. Then Morgana raised her staff and a thick mist curled out of it and onto the roads.

"Run," she screamed at Merlin but Mordred simply directed the violent storm to sweep away the mist within seconds of it being conjured. Mordred's goons began to close in on Merlin but Arthur stood in front of him and slashed his sword through the air threateningly.

"Do as Morgana says," he said. "Run." But Merlin couldn't. His legs had turned to rubber. He was so scared that he couldn't move and could only watch as Mordred's bodyguards brought out identical blue light sabre swords. They took a step towards Arthur but Mordred shouted at them to get Morgana.

"Arthur is mine," he said simply. Fire burst from Mordred's fist licking over his flesh without doing any damage. He advanced on Arthur, and although Mordred was at least two feet smaller than Arthur he was just as intimidating.

And all of a sudden, Merlin was angry.

This wasn't fair. Mordred was ruining his life again. And no one was going to hurt Arthur.

Especially not that evil little midget.

Merlin could never really explain why he did what he did next. Gwen thought it was because he desperately wanted to help Arthur. Morgana thought it could be his magical instinct. Arthur thought it was because he was being an idiot. Whatever the reason, Merlin pulled of his first piece of magic.

He looked up at the skies (which had suddenly turned black and gloomy) and then looked at Mordred. He imagined something huge falling from the sky and squashing Mordred. There was a tug in his stomach as a huge ball of hail the size of a van shot down between Mordred and Arthur blocking Mordred's path.

More and more gigantic pieces of hail fell towards Mordred and his lackies (who while Arthur and Merlin were distracted had been advancing on Morgana). Mordred looked straight at Merlin and his eyes narrowed. Then he grabbed his companions by the back of their shirts and they were gone like nothing had ever happened.

A second later, the van sized hail impacted with the tarmac leaving a gigantic crater in the road, marking that place where Mordred had been standing.

Morgana and Arthur were at a loss for words which to Merlin seemed like a first. Merlin took this opportunity to check on the bracelet his mother had given him. The string had broken right in the middle just between the first and the third block of wood.

As fast as it came the storm disappeared and the normal sunny day returned. The tug in Merlin's stomach disappeared. And so did all feeling in his body.

"Watch out," cried Morgana, "He's going to faint again." Arthur caught Merlin before he hit the road and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Who are you?" asked Arthur and as Merlin drifted away he had enough energy to say,

"Merlin." And then he blacked out. Again.

Thanks for reading.